^(5^^^ 


JOHN   SPLENDID 


JOHN  SPLENDID 

THE  TALE  OF  A  POOR  GENTLEMAN 


AND   THE 


LITTLE  WARS  OF  LORN 


BY 

NEIL    MUNRO 


t 


NEW   YORK 

DODD,   MEAD    AND    COMPANY 

1898 


t^ 


Copyright,  1S97, 
By  Neil  Munro. 


5Enii3crsttg  ?|3«ss: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


JOHN     SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   I 

Many  a  time,  in  college  or  in  camp,  I  had  planned 
the  style  of  my  home-coming.  Master  Webster, 
in  the  Humanities,  droning  away  like  a  Boreraig 
bagpipe,  would  be  sending  my  mind  back  to  Shira 
Glen,  its  braes  and  corries  and  singing  waters, 
and  Ben  Bhuidhe  over  all,  and  with  my  chin  on 
a  hand  I  would  ponder  on  how  I  should  go  home 
again  when  this  weary  scholarship  was  over,  I 
had  always  a  ready  fancy  and  some  of  the  natural 
vanity  of  youth,  so  I  could  see  myself  landing  off 
the  lugger  at  the  quay  of  Inneraora  town,  three 
inches  more  of  a  man  than  when  I  left  with  a 
firkin  of  herring  and  a  few  bolls  of  meal  for  my 
winter's  provand ;  thicker  too  at  the  chest,  and 
with  a  jacket  of  London  green  cloth  with  brass 
buttons.  Would  the  fishermen  about  the  quay- 
head  not  lean  over  the  gun'les  of  their  skiffs  and 
say,  **  There  goes  young  Elrigmore  from  Colleg- 
ing,  well-knit  in  troth,  and  a  pretty  lad!"  I 
could  hear  (all  in  my  day  dream  in  yon  place  of 
dingy  benches)  the  old  women  about  the  well  at 
the  town  Cross  say,  "  Oh  locliain!  thou  art  come 
I 


2  JOHN   SPLENDID 

back  from  the  Galldach,  and  Glascow  College, 
what  a  thousand  curious  things  thou  must  know, 
and  what  wisdom  thou  must  have,  but  never  a 
change  on  thy  affability  to  the  old  and  to  the 
poor !  "  But  it  was  not  till  I  had  run  away  from 
Glascow  College  and  shut  the  boards  for  good 
and  all,  as  I  thought,  on  my  humane  letters  and 
history,  and  gone  with  Cousin  Gavin  to  the  Ger- 
man wars  in  Munro's  Corps  of  true  Highlanders 
that  I  added  a  manlier  thought  to  my  thinking  of 
the  day  when  I  should  come  home  to  my  native 
place.  I  've  seen  me  in  the  camp  at  night,  dog- 
wearied  after  stoury  marching  on  their  cursed 
foreign  roads,  keeping  my  eyes  open  and  the  sleep 
at  an  arm's-length,  that  I  might  think  of  Shira 
Glen.  Whatever  they  may  say  of  me  or  mine, 
they  can  never  deny  but  I  had  the  right  fond  heart 
for  my  own  country-side,  and  I  have  fought  men 
for  speaking  of  its  pride  and  poverty  — their  igno- 
rance, their  folly!  —  for  what  did  they  ken  of  the 
Highland  spirit.''  I  would  be  lying  in  the  lap  of 
the  night,  and  my  Ferrara  sword  rolled  in  my 
plaid  as  a  pillow  for  my  head,  fancying  myself 
—  all  those  long  wars  over,  march,  siege,  and 
sack  — •  riding  on  a  good  horse  down  the  pass  of 
Aora  and  through  the  arches  into  the  old  town. 
Then,  it  was  not  the  fishermen  or  the  old  women 
I  thought  of,  but  the  girls,  and  the  winking  stars 
above  me  were  their  eyes,  glinting  merrily  and 
kindly  on  a  stout  young  gentleman  soldier  with 
jack  and  morion,  sword  at  haunch,  spur  at  heel, 
and   a   name   for   bravado,    never  a   home-biding 


JOHN   SPLENDID  3 

laird  in  our  parish  had,  burgh  or  land-ward.  I 
would  sit  on  my  horse  so,  the  chest  well  out,  the 
back  curved,  the  knees  straight,  one  gauntlet  off 
to  let  my  white  hand  wave  a  salute  when  needed, 
and  none  of  all  the  pretty  ones  would  be  able  to 
say  Elrigmore  thought  another  one  the  sweetest. 
Oh!  I  tell  you  we  learnt  many  arts  in  the  Low- 
land wars,  more  than  they  teach  Master  of  Art  in 
the  old  biggin'  in  the  Hie  Street  of  Glascow. 

One  day,  at  a  place  called  Nordlingen  in  the 
Mid  Franken,  binding  a  wound  Gavin  got  in  the 
sword-arm,  I  said,  "What's  your  wish  at  this 
moment,  cousin.''" 

He  looked  at  me  with  a  melting  eye,  and  the 
flush  hove  to  his  face. 

"'Fore  God,  Colin,"  said  he,  "I  would  give 
my  twelve  months'  wage  to  stand  below  the  lintel 
of  my  mother's  door  and  hear  her  say  '  Darling 
scamp ! '  " 

"  If  you  had  your  wish,  Gavin,  when  and  how 
would  you  go  into  Inncraora  town  after  those 
weary  years  away?" 

"Man,  I  've  made  that  up  long  syne,"  said  he, 
and  the  tear  was  at  his  cheek.  "  Let  me  go  into 
it  cannily  at  night-fall  from  the  Cromalt  end, 
when  the  boys  and  girls  were  dancing  on  the 
green  to  the  pipes  at  the  end  of  a  harvest-day. 
Them  in  a  reel,  with  none  of  the  abulziements  of 
war  about  me,  but  a  plain  civil  lad  like  the  rest, 
I  would  join  in  the  strathspey  and  kiss  two  or 
three  of  the  girls  ere  ever  they  jaloused  a  stranger 
was  among  them." 


4  JOHN    SPLENDID 

Poor  Gavin,  good  Gavin !  he  came  home  no  way 
at  all  to  his  mother  and  his  mountains,  but  here 
was  I,  with  some  of  his  wish  for  my  fortune,  rid- 
ing cannily  into  Inneraora  town  in  the  dark. 

It  is  wonderful  how  travel,  even  in  a  marching 
company  of  cavaliers  of  fortune,  gives  scope  to  the 
mind.  When  I  set  foot,  twelve  years  before  this 
night  I  speak  of,  on  the  gabbard  that  carried  me 
down  to  Dunbarton  on  my  way  to  the  Humani- 
ties classes,  I  could  have  sworn  I  was  leaving 
a  burgh  most  large  and  wonderful.  The  town 
houses  of  old  Stonefield,  Craignish,  Craignure, 
Askaig,  and  the  other  cadets  of  Clan  Campbell, 
had  such  a  strong  and  genteel  look ;  the  windows, 
all  but  a  very  few,  had  glass  in  every  lozen,  every 
shutter  had  a  hole  to  let  in  the  morning  light, 
and  each  door  had  its  little  ford  of  stones  running 
across  the  gutter  that  sped  down  the  street,  smell- 
ing fishily  a  bit,  on  its  way  to  the  shore.  For 
me,  in  those  days,  each  close  that  pierced  the 
tall  lands  was  as  wide  and  high  as  a  mountain 
eas,  the  street  itself  seemed  broad  and  substan- 
tial, crowded  with  people  worth  kenning  for  their 
graces  and  the  many  things  they  knew. 

I  came  home  now  on  this  night  of  nights  with 
Munchen  and  Augsburg,  and  the  fine  cities  of  all 
the  France,  in  my  mind,  and  I  tell  you  I  could 
think  shame  of  this  mean  rickle  of  stones  I  had 
thought  a  town,  were  it  not  for  the  good  hearts  and 
kind  I  knew  were  under  every  roof.  The  broad 
street  crowded  with  people,  did  I  say.'*  A  little 
lane  rather;  and  Elrigmore,  with  schooling  and  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  5 

wisdom  of  travel,  felt  he  could  see  into  the  heart's 
core  of  the  cunningest  merchant  in  the  place. 

But  anyway,  here  I  was,  riding  into  town  from 
the  Cromalt  end  on  a  night  in  autumn.  It  was 
after  ten  —  between  the  twenty  and  the  half-past 
by  my  Paris  watch  —  when  I  got  the  length  of 
the  Crcags,  and  I  knew  that  there  was  nothing 
but  a  sleeping  town  before  me,  for  our  folks  were 
always  early  bedders  when  the  fishing  season  was 
on.  The  night  hung  thick  with  stars,  but  there 
was  no  moon;  a  stiff  wind  from  the  east  prinked 
at  my  right  ear  and  cooled  my  horse's  skin,  as  he 
slowed  down  after  a  canter  of  a  mile  or  two  on 
this  side  of  Pennymore.  Out  on  the  loch  I  could 
see  the  lights  of  a  few  herring-boats  lift  and  fall 
at  the  end  of  their  trail  of  nets. 

"  Too  few  of  you  there  for  the  town  to  be  busy 
and  cheerful,"  said  I  to  myself;  "no  doubt  the 
bulk  of  the  boats  are  down  at  Otter,  damming  the 
fish  in  the  narrow  gut,  and  keeping  them  from 
searching  up  to  our  own  good  townsmen." 

I  pressed  my  brute  to  a  trot,  and  turned  round 
into  the  nether  part  of  the  town.  It  was  what  I 
expected  —  the  place  was  dark,  black  out.  The 
people  were  sleeping;  the  salt  air  of  Loch  Finne 
went  sighing  through  the  place  in  a  way  that 
made  me  dowie  for  old  days.  We  went  over  the 
causeway-stones  with  a  clatter  that  might  have 
wakened  the  dead,  but  no  one  put  a  head  out,  and 
I  thought  of  the  notion  of  a  cheery  home-coming 
I^oor  Gavin  had  —  my  dear  cousin,  stroked  out 
and  cold   under  foreign   clods  at  Velshiem,  two 


6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

leagues  below  the  field  of  Worms  of  Hessen,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  in  Low  German ie. 

It 's  a  curious  business  this  riding  into  a  town 
in  the  dark  waste  of  night ;  curious  even  in  a 
strange  town  when  all  are  the  same  for  you  that 
sleep  behind  those  shutters  and  those  doors,  but 
doubly  curious  when  you  know  that  behind  the 
dark  fronts  are  lying  folks  that  you  know  well, 
that  have  been  thinking,  and  drinking,  and  thriv- 
ing when  you  were  far  away.  As  I  went  clatter- 
ing slowly  by,  I  would  say  at  one  house  front, 
"Yonder  's  my  old  comrade,  Tearlach,  that  taught 
me  my  one  tune  on  the  pipe-chanter ;  is  his  beard 
grown  yet,  I  wonder?"  At  another,  "There  is 
the  garret  window  of  the  schoolmaster's  daughter 
—  does  she  sing  so  sweetly  nowadays  in  the  old 
kirk?" 

In  the  dead  middle  of  the  street  I  pulled  my 
horse  up,  just  to  study  the  full  quietness  of  the 
hour.  Leaning  over,  I  put  a  hand  on  his  nos- 
trils and  whispered  in  his  ear  for  a  silence,  as  we 
do  abroad  in  ambuscade.  Town  Inneraora  slept 
sound,  sure  enough !  All  to  hear  was  the  spill- 
ing of  the  river  at  the  cascade  under  the  bridge 
and  the  plopping  of  the  waves  against  the  wall 
we  call  the  ramparts,  that  keeps  the  sea  from 
thrashing  on  the  Tolbooth.  And  then  over  all  I 
could  hear  a  most  strange  moaning  sound,  such 
as  we  boys  used  to  make  with  a  piece  of  lath 
nicked  at  the  edges  and  swung  hurriedly  round 
the  head  by  a  string.  It  was  made  by  the  wind, 
I  knew,  for  it  came  loudest  in  the  gusty  bits  of 


JOHN   SPLENDID  7 

the  night  and  from  the  east,  and  when  there  was 
a  lull  I  could  hear  it  soften  away  and  end  for  a 
second  or  two  with  a  dunt,  as  if  some  heavy,  soft 
thing  struck  against  wood. 

Whatever  it  was,  the  burghers  of  Inneraora 
paid  no  heed,  but  slept,  stark  and  sound,  behind 
their  steeked  shutters. 

The  solemnity  of  the  place,  that  I  knew  so 
much  better  in  a  natural  lively  mood,  annoyed 
me,  and  I  played  there  and  then  a  prank  more 
becoming  a  boy  in  his  first  kilt  than  a  gentle- 
man of  education  and  travel  and  some  repute  for 
sobriety.  I  noticed  I  was  opposite  the  house  of 
a  poor  old  woman  they  called  Kate  Dubh,  whose 
door  was  ever  the  target  in  my  young  days  for 
every  lad  that  could  brag  of  a  boot-toe,  and  I  saw 
that  the  shutter,  hanging  ajee  on  one  hinge,  was 
thrown  open  against  the  harled  wall  of  the  house. 
In  my  doublet-pocket  there  were  some  carabeen 
bullets,  and  taking  one  out,  I  let  bang  at  the  old 
woman's  little  lozens.  There  was  a  splinter  of 
glass,  and  I  waited  to  see  if  any  one  should  come 
out  to  see  who  was  up  to  such  damage.  My  trick 
was  in  vain ;  no  one  came.  Old  Kate,  as  I  found 
next  day,  was  dead  since  Martinmas,  and  her 
house  was  empty. 

Still  the  moaning  sound  came  from  the  town- 
head,  and  I  went  slowly  riding  in  its  direction. 
It  grew  clearer  and  yet  uncannier  as  I  sped  on, 
and  mixed  with  the  sough  of  it  I  could  at  last 
hear  the  clink  of  chains. 

"What  in  God's  name  have  I  hcre.^  "  said  I  to 


8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

myself,  turning  round  Islay  Campbell's  corner, 
and  yonder  was  my  answer ! 

The  town  gibbets  were  throng  indeed  !  Two 
corpses  swung  in  the  wind,  like  net  bows  on  a 
drying-pole,  going  from  side  to  side,  making  the 
woeful  sough  and  clink  of  chains,  and  the  dunt  I 
had  heard  when  the  wind  dropped. 

I  grued  more  at  the  sound  of  the  soughing  than 
at  the  sight  of  the  hanged  fellows,  for  I  've  seen 
the  Fell  Sergeant  in  too  many  ugly  fashions  to 
be  much  put  about  at  a  hanging  match.  But  it 
was  such  a  poor  home-coming!  It  told  me  as 
plain  as  could  be,  what  I  had  heard  rumours  of 
in  the  low  country  riding  round  from  the  port  of 
Leith,  that  the  land  was  uneasy,  and  that  pit  and 
gallows  were  bye-ordinar  busy  at  the  gates  of  our 
castle.  When  I  left  for  my  last  session  at  Glas- 
cow  College,  the  countryside  was  quiet  as  a  vil- 
lage green,  never  a  raider  nor  a  reiver  in  the  land, 
and  so  poor  the  Doomster's  trade  (Black  George), 
that  he  took  to  the  shoeing  of  horses. 

"There  must  be  something  wicked  in  the  times, 
and  cheatery  rampant  indeed,"  I  thought,  "when 
the  common  gibbet  of  Inneraora  has  a  drunkard's 
convoy  on  either  hand  to  prop  it  up." 

But  it  was  no  time  for  meditation.  Through 
the  rags  of  plaiding  on  the  chains  went  the  wind 
again  so  eerily  that  I  bound  to  be  off,  and  I  put 
my  horse  to  it,  bye  the  town-head  and  up  the  two 
miles  to  Glen  Shira.  I  was  sore  and  galled  sit- 
ting on  the  saddle;  my  weariness  hung  at  the 
back  of  my  legs  and  shoulders  like  an  ague,  and 


JOHN   SPLENDID  9 

there  was  never  a  man  in  this  world  came  home 
to  his  native  place  so  eager  for  taking  supper  and 
sleep  as  young  Elrigmore. 

What  I  expected  at  my  father's  door  I  am  not 
going  to  set  down  here.  I  went  from  it  a  fool, 
with  not  one  grace  about  me  but  the  love  of  my 
good  mother,  and  the  punishment  I  had  for  my 
hot  and  foolish  cantrip  was  many  a  wae  night  on 
foreign  fields,  vexed  to  the  core  for  the  sore  heart 
I  had  left  at  home. 

My  mind,  for  all  my  weariness,  was  full  of 
many  things,  and  shame  above  all,  as  I  made  for 
my  father's  house.  The  horse  had  never  seen 
Glen  Shira,  but  it  smelt  the  comfort  of  the  stable 
and  whinnied  cheerfully  as  I  pulled  up  at  the 
gate.  There  was  but  one  window  to  the  gable- 
end  of  Elrigmore,  and  it  was  something  of  a  sur- 
prise to  me  to  find  a  light  in  it,  for  our  people 
were  not  overly  rich  in  these  days,  and  candle  or 
cruisie  was  wont  to  be  doused  at  bedtime.  More 
was  my  surprise,  when  leading  my  horse  round  to 
the  front,  feeling  my  way  in  the  dark  by  memory, 
I  found  the  oak  door  open  and  my  father,  dressed, 
standing  in  the  light  of  it. 

A  young  sqalag  came  running  to  the  reins,  and 
handing  them  to  him,  I  stepped  into  the  light  of 
the  door,  my  bonnet  in  my  hand. 

"Step  in,  sir,  caird  or  gentleman,"  said  my 
father  —  looking  a  little  more  bent  at  the  shoulder 
than  twelve  years  before. 

I  went  under  the  door-lintel,  and  stood  a  little 
abashed  before  him. 


lo  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  Colin !  Colin  ! "  he  cried  in  the  Gaelic.     "  Did 

I  not  ken  it  was  you?  "  and  he  put  his  two  hands 
on  my  shoulders. 

"It  is  Colin  sure  enough,  father  dear,"  I  said, 
slipping  readily  enough  into  the  mother  tongue 
they  did  their  best  to  get  out  of  me  at  Glascow 
College.  "Is  he  welcome  in  this  door.'"'  and 
the  weariness  weighed  me  down  at  the  hip  and 
bowed  my  very  legs. 

He  gripped  me  tight  at  the  elbows,  and  looked 
me  hungrily  in  the  face. 

"If  you  had  a  murdered  man's  head  in  your 
oxter,  Colin,"  said  he,  "you  were  still  my  son. 
Colin,  Colin  !  come  ben  and  put  off  your  boots  '  " 

"Mother,"  I  said,  but  he  broke  in  on  my 
question. 

"  Come  in,  lad,  and  sit  down.  You  are  back 
from  the  brave  wars  you  never  went  to  with  my 
will,  and  you  '11  find  stirring  times  here  at  your 
own  parish.  It  's  the  way  of  the  Sennachies' 
stories. " 

"How  is  that,  sir?" 

"They  tell,  you  know,  that  people  wander  far 
on  the  going  foot  for  adventure,  and'  adventure  is 
in  the  first  turning  of  their  native  lane." 

I  was  putting  my  boots  off  before  a  fire  of  hiss- 
ing logs  that  filled  the  big  room  with  a  fir-wood 
smell  right  homely  and  comforting  to  my  heart, 
and  my  father  was  doing  what  I  should  have 
known  was  my  mother's  oiSce  if  weariness  had 
not  left  me  in  a  sort  of  stupor  —  he  was  laying  on 
the  Spanish  mahogany  board  with  carved   legs  a 


JOHN    SPLENDID  ii 

stout  and  soldierly  supper  and  a  tankard  of  the 
red  Bordeaux  wine  the  French  traffickers  bring 
to  Loch  Finne  to  trade  for  cured  herring.  He 
would  come  up  now  and  then  where  I  sat  fumbling 
sleepily  at  my  laces,  and  put  a  hand  on  my  head, 
a  curious  unmanly  sort  of  thing  I  never  knew  my 
father  do  before,  and  I  felt  put -about  at  this  pet- 
ting, which  would  have  been  more  like  my  sister 
if  ever  I  had  had  the  luck  to  have  one. 

"You  are  tired,  Colin,  my  boy?  "  he  said. 

"A  bit,  father,  a  bit,"  I  answered,  "tough  roads 
you  know.  I  was  landed  at  break  of  day  at 
Skipness  and  —  Is  mother " 

"  Sit  in,  lochain  !  Did  you  meet  many  folks  on 
the  road  >.  " 

"No,  sir;  a  pestilent  barren  journey  as  ever  I 
trotted  on,  and  the  people  seemingly  on  the  hill, 
for  their  crops  are  unco  late  in  the  field." 

"Ay,  ay,  lad,  so  they  are,"  said  my  father,  pull- 
ing back  his  shoulders  a  bit  —  a  fairly  straight 
wiry  old  man,  with  a  name  for  good  swordsman- 
ship in  his  younger  days. 

I  was  busy  at  a  cold  partridge,  and  hard  at  it, 
when  I  thought  again  how  curious  it  was  that  my 
father  should  be  afoot  in  the  house  at  such  time 
of  night  and  no  one  else  about,  he  so  early  a 
bedder  for  ordinary  and  never  the  last  to  sneck 
the  outer  door. 

"Did  you  expect  any  one,  father.?"  I  asked, 
"that  you  should  be  waiting  up  with  the  colla- 
tion, and  the  outer  door  unsnccked }  " 

"  There  was  never  an  outer  door  snecked  since 


12  JOHN   SPLENDID 

you  left,  Colin,"  said  he,  turning  awkwardly  away 
and  looking  hard  into  the  loof  of  his  hand  like  a 
wife  spacing  fortunes  —  for  sheer  want,  I  could 
see,  of  some  engagement  for  his  eyes.  "  I  could 
never  get  away  with  the  notion  that  some  way 
like  this  at  night  would  ye  come  back  to 
Elrigmore. " 

"  Mother  would  miss  me  ?  " 

"She  did,  Colin,  she  did;  I  'm  not  denying." 

"She'll  be  bedded  long  syne,  no  doubt, 
father.?" 

My  father  looked  at  me  and  gulped  at  the 
throat. 

"Bedded  indeed,  poor  Colin,"  said  he,  "this 
very  day  in  the  clods  of  Kilmalieu !  " 

And  that  was  my  melancholy  home-coming  to 
my  father's  house  of  Elrigmore,  in  the  parish  of 
Glenaora,  in  the  shire  of  Argile. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  13 


CHAPTER   11 

Every  land,  every  glen  or  town,  I  make  no  doubt, 
has  its  own  peculiar  air  or  atmosphere  that  one 
familiar  with  the  same  may  never  puzzle  about  in 
his  mind,  but  finds  come  over  him  with  a  waft  at 
odd  moments  like  the  scent  of  bog-myrtle  and 
tansy  in  an  old  clothes-press.  Our  own  air  in 
Glen  Shira  had  ever  been  very  genial  and  encour- 
aging to  me.  Even  when  a  young  lad,  coming 
back  from  the  low  country  or  the  scaling  of  school, 
the  cool  fresh  breezes  of  the  morning  and  the 
riper  airs  of  the  late  afternoon  went  to  my  head 
like  a  mild  white  wine;  very  heartsome  too,  rous- 
ing the  laggard  spirit  that  perhaps  made  me, 
before,  over-apt  to  sit  and  dream  of  the  doing  of 
grand  things  instead  of  putting  out  a  hand  to  do 
them.  In  Glascow  the  one  thing  that  I  had  to 
grumble  most  about  next  to  the  dreary  hours  of 
schooling  was  the  clammy  airs  of  street  and  close; 
in  Germanic  it  was  worse,  a  moist  weakening 
"windiness  full  of  foreign  smells,  and  I  've  seen 
me  that  I  could  gaily  march  a  handful  of  leagues 
to  get  a  sniff  of  the  spirity  salt  sea.  Not  that  I 
was  one  who  craves  for  wrack  and  bilge  at  my 
nose  all  the  time.  What  I  think  best  is  a  stance 
inland  from  the  salt  water,  where  the  mountain 


14  JOHN   SPLENDID 

air,  brushing  over  gall  and  heather,  takes  the 
sting  from  the  sea  air,  and  the  two  blended  give 
a  notion  of  the  fine  variousness  of  life.  We  had 
a  herdsman  once  in  Elrigmore,  who  could  tell  five 
miles  up  the  glen  when  the  tide  was  out  on  Loch 
Finne.  I  was  never  so  keen-scented  as  that;  but 
when  I  awakened  next  day  in  a  camceiled  room 
in  Elrigmore,  and  put  my  head  out  at  the  window 
to  look  around,  I  smelt  the  heather  for  a  second 
like  an  escapade  in  a  dream. 

Down  to  Ealan  Eagal  I  went  for  a  plunge  in 
the  linn  in  the  old  style,  and  the  airs  of  Shira 
Glen  hung  about  me  like  friends  and  lovers,  so 
well  acquaint  and  jovial. 

Shira  Glen,  Shira  Glen  !  if  I  was  bard  I  'd  have 
songs  to  sing  to  it,  and  all  I  know  is  one  scul- 
duddry  verse  on  a  widow  that  dwelt  in  Maam ! 
There  at  the  foot  of  my  father's  house,  were  the 
winding  river,  and  north  and  south  the  brown 
hills,  split  asunder  by  God's  goodness,  to  give  a 
sample  of  His  bounty.  Maam,  Elrigmore  and 
Elrigbeg,  Kilblaan  and  Ben  Bhuidhe  —  their  steep 
sides  hung  with  cattle,  and  below  crowded  the 
reeking  homes  of  tacksman  and  cottar;  the  burns 
poured  hurriedly  to  the  flat  beneath  their  borders 
of  hazel  and  ash ;  to  the  south,  the  fresh  water  we 
call  Dubh  Loch,  flapping  with  ducks  and  fringed 
with  shelistcrs  or  water-flags  and  bulrush,  and 
further  off  the  Cowal  hills ;  to  the  north,  the  wood 
of  Drimlee  and  the  wild  pass  the  red  Macgregors 
sometimes  took  for  a  back-road  to  our  cattle-folds 
in  cloud  of  nieht  and  darkness.      Down  on  it  all 


JOHN   SPLENDID  15 

poured  the  polished  and  hearty  sun,  birds  chirmed 
on  every  tree,  though  it  was  late  in  the  year; 
blackcock  whirred  across  the  alders,  and  sturdy 
heifers  bellowed  tunefully,  knee-deep  at  the  ford. 

"Far  have  I  wandered,"  thinks  I  to  myself, 
"warring  other  folks'  wars  for  the  humour  of  it 
and  small  wages,  but  here  's  the  one  place  I  've 
seen  yet  that  was  worth  hacking  good  steel  for  in 
earnest !  " 

But  still  my  heart  was  sore  for  mother,  and 
sore,  too,  for  the  tale  of  changed  times  in  Camp- 
bell country  my  father  told  me  over  a  breakfast  of 
braddan  fresh  caught  in  a  creel  from  the  Garron 
River,  oaten  bannock,  and  cream. 

After  breakfast  I  got  me  into  my  kilt  for  town. 
There  are  many  costumes  going  about  the  world, 
but,  with  allowance  for  one  and  all,  I  make  bold 
to  think  our  own  tartan  duds  the  gallantest  of 
them  all.  The  kilt  was  my  wear  when  first  I 
went  to  Glascow  College,  and  many  a  St.  Mungo 
keelie,  no  better  than  myself  at  classes  or  at 
English  language,  made  fun  of  my  brown  knees, 
sometimes  not  to  the  advantage  of  his  headpiece 
when  it  came  to  argument  and  neifs  on  the 
Fleshers  Haugh.  Pulling  on  my  old  brcacan  this 
morning  in  Elrigmore  was  like  donning  a  fairy 
garb,  and  getting  back  ten  years  of  youth.  We 
have  a  way  of  belting  on  the  kilt  in  real  Argile 
I  have  seen  nowhere  else.  Ordinarily,  our  lads 
take  the  whole  web  of  tartan  cloth,  of  twenty  ells 
or  more,  and  coil  it  once  round  their  middle, 
there  belting  it,  and  bring  the  free  end  up  on  the 


i6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

shoulder  to  pin  with  a  dcalg,  not  a  bad  fashion 
for  display  and  long  marches  and  for  sleeping  out 
on  the  hill  with,  but  sometimes  discommodious 
for  warm  weather.  It  was  our  plan  sometimes  to 
make  what  we  called  a  philabeg,  or  little  kilt, 
maybe  eight  yards  long,  gathered  in  at  the  haunch 
and  hung  in  many  pleats  behind,  the  plain  brat 
part  in  front  decked  off  with  a  leather  sporran, 
tagged  with  thong  points  tied  in  knots,  and  with 
no  plaid  on  the  shoulder.  I  've  never  seen  a  more 
jaunty  and  suitable  garb  for  campaigning,  better 
by  far  for  short  sharp  tulzies  with  an  enemy  than 
the  philamore  or  the  big  kilt  our  people  some- 
times throw  off  them  in  a  skirmish,  and  fight 
(the  coarsest  of  them)  in  their  gartered  hose  and 
scrugged  bonnets. 

With  my  kilt  and  the  memory  of  old  times 
about  me,  I  went  walking  down  to  Inneraora  in 
the  middle  of  the  day.  I  was  prepared  for  change 
from  the  complaints  of  my  father,  but  never  for 
half  the  change  I  found  in  the  burgh  town  of 
MacCailein  Mor.  In  my  twelve  foreign  years  the 
place  was  swamped  by  incomers,  black  unwel- 
come Covenanters  from  the  shires  of  Air  and 
Lanrick  —  Brices,  Yuilles,  Rodgers,  and  Richies 
—  all  brought  up  here  by  Gillesbeg  Gruamach, 
Marquis  of  Argile,  to  teach  his  clans  the  art  of 
peace  and  merchandise.  Half  the  folk  I  met  be- 
tween the  arches  and  the  Big  Barns  were  strangers 
that  seemingly  never  had  tartan  on  their  hurdies, 
but  settled  down  with  a  firm  foot  in  the  place,  I 
could  see  by  the  bold  look  of  them  as  I  passed  on 


JOHN   SPLENDID  17 

the  plain-stanes  of  the  street.  A  queer  town  this 
on  the  edge  of  Loch  Finne,  and  far  in  the  High- 
lands! There  were  shops  with  Lowland  stuffs  in 
them,  and  over  the  doors  signboards  telling  of 
the  most  curious  trades  for  a  Campbell  burgh 
—  horologers,  cordiners,  baxters,  and  suchlike 
mechanicks  that  I  felt  sure  poor  Donald  had 
small  call  for.  They  might  be  incomers,  but 
they  were  thirled  to  Gillesbeg  all  the  same,  as  I 
found  later  on. 

It  was  the  court  day,  and  his  lordship  was  sit- 
ting in  judgment  on  two  Strathlachlan  fellows, 
who  had  been  brawling  at  the  Cross  the  week 
before  and  came  to  knives,  more  in  a  frolic  than  in 
hot  blood,  with  some  of  the  town  lads.  With  two 
or  three  old  friends  I  went  into  the  Tolbooth  to 
see  the  play  —  for  play  it  was,  I  must  confess  — 
in  town  Inneraora,  when  justice  was  due  to  a 
man  whose  name  by  ill-luck  was  not  Campbell, 
or  whose  bonnet-badge  was  not  the  myrtle  stem. 

The  Tolbooth  hall  was,  and  is  to  this  day,  a 
spacious  high-ceiled  room,  well  lighted  from  the 
bay-side.  It  was  crowded  soon  after  we  got  in, 
with  Cowalside  fishermen  and  townpeople  all  the 
one  way  or  the  other,  for  or  against  the  poor  lads 
in  bilboes,  who  sat,  simple-looking  enough,  be- 
tween the  town  officers,  a  pair  of  old  bodacJis  in 
long  scarlet  coats  and  carrying  titaghs,  Lochaber 
axes,  or  halberds  that  never  smelt  blood  since  they 
came  from  the  smith. 

It  was  the  first  time  ever  I  saw  Gillesbeg  Grua- 
mach  sitting  on  the  bench,  and  I  was  startled  at 

2 


1 8  JOHN    SPLENDID 

the  look  of  the  man.  I  've  seen  some  sour  clogs 
in  my  clay  —  few  worse  than  Ruthven's  rittmasters 
we  met  in  Swabia,  but  I  never  saw  a  man  who,  at 
the  first  vizzy,  had  the  dour  sour  countenance  of 
Archibald,  Marquis  of  Argileand  Lord  of  Lochow. 
Gruamach,  or  grim-faced,  our  good  Gaels  called 
him  in  a  bye-name,  and  well  he  owned  it,  for  over 
necklace  or  gorget,  I  've  seldom  seen  a  sterner 
jowl  or  a  more  sinister  eye.  And  yet,  to  be  fair 
and  honest,  this  was  but  the  notion  one  got  at  a 
first  glint;  in  a  while  I  thought  little  was  amiss 
with  his  looks  as  he  leaned  on  the  table  and 
cracked  in  a  humoursome  laughing  way  with  the 
panelled  jury. 

He  might  have  been  a  plain  cottar  in  Glen  Aora 
side  rather  than  King  of  the  Highlands  for  all  the 
airs  he  assumed,  and  when  he  saw  me,  better  put- 
on  in  costume  than  my  neighbours  in  court,  he 
seemingly  asked  my  name  in  a  whisper  from  the 
clerk  beside  him,  and  finding  who  I  was,  cried 
out  in  St.  Andrew's  English  — 

"What!  Young  Elrigmore  back  to  the  Glens! 
I  give  you  welcome,  sir,  to  Baile  Inneraora!  " 

I  but  bowed,  and  in  a  fashion  saluted,  saying 
nothing  in  answer,  for  the  whole  company  glowered 
at  me,  all  except  the  home-bred  ones,  who  had 
better  manners. 

The  two  MacLachlans  denied  in  the  Gaelic  the 
charge  the  sheriff  clerk  read  to  them  in  a  long 
farrago  of  English  with  more  foreign  words  to  it 
than  ever  I  learned  the  sense  of  in  College. 

His  lordship  paid  small  liecd  to  the  witnesses 


JOHN   SPLENDID  19 

who  came  forward  to  swear  to  the  unruliness  of 
the  Strathlachlan  men,  and  the  jury  talked  heed- 
lessly with  one  another  in  a  fashion  scandalous  to 
see.  The  man  who  had  been  stabbed  —  it  was 
but  a  jag  at  the  shoulder,  where  the  dirk  had  gone 
through  from  front  to  back  with  only  some  loss  of 
blood  —  was  averse  to  being  hard  on  the  panels. 
He  was  a  jocular  fellow  with  the  right  heart  for 
a  duello;  and  in  his  nipped  burgh  Gaelic  he  made 
light  of  the  disturbance  and  his  injury. 

"Nothing  but  a  bit  play,  my  jurymen — Mac- 
Cailein  —  my  lordship  —  a  bit  play.  If  the  poor 
lad  did  n't  happen  to  have  his  dirk  out  and  I  to 
run  on  it,  nobody  was  a  bodle  the  worse." 

"  But  the  law,  man  "  —  started  the  clerk  to  say. 

"No  case  for  law  at  all,"  said  the  witness. 
"It  's  an  honest  brawl  among  friends,  and  I  could 
settle  the  account  with  them  at  the  next  market- 
day,  when  my  shoulder's  mended." 

"Better  if  you  would  settle  my  account  for  your 
last  pair  of  brogues,  Alasdair  M'lver,"  said  a 
black-avised  juryman. 

"What's  your  trade.!*"  asked  the  Marquis  of 
the  witness. 

"I'm  at  the  Coillebhraid  silver-mines,"  said 
he.  "We  had  a  little  too  much  drink,  or  these 
MacLachlan  gentlemen  and  I  had  never  come  to 
variance." 

The  Marquis  gloomed  at  the  speaker  and  brought 
down  his  fist  with  a  bang  on  the  table  before 
him. 

"Damn   those  silver-mines!"    said   he,    "they 


20  JOHN   SPLENDID 

breed  more  trouble  in  this  town  of  mine  than  I  'm 
willing  to  thole.  If  they  put  a  penny  in  my 
purse  it  might  not  be  so  irksome,  but  they  plague 
me  sleeping  and  waking,  and  I  'm  not  a  plack  the 
richer.  If  it  were  not  to  give  my  poor  cousin, 
John  Splendid,  a  chance  of  a  living  and  occupa- 
tion for  his  wits,  I  would  drown  them  out  with 
the  water  of  Cromalt  Burn." 

The  witness  gave  a  little  laugh,  and  ducking 
his  head  oddly  like  one  taking  liberties  with  a 
master,  said,  "We're  a  drouthy  set,  my  lord,  at 
the  mines,  and  I  wouldn't  be  saying  but  what  we 
might  drink  them  dry  again  of  a  morning,  if  we 
had  been  into  town  the  night  before," 

His  lordship  cut  short  his  sour  smile  at  the 
man's  fancy,  and  bade  the  officers  on  with  the 
case. 

"You  have  heard  the  proof,"  he  said  to  the 
jury  when  it  came  to  his  turn  to  charge  them. 
"Are  they  guilty,  or  not.-'  If  the  question  was 
put  to  me  I  should  say  the  Laird  of  MacLachlan, 
arrant  Papist !  should  keep  his  men  at  home  to 
Mass  on  the  other  side  of  the  loch  instead  of  loos- 
ing them  on  honest,  or  middling  honest  Camp- 
bells, for  the  strict  virtue  of  these  Coillebhraid 
miners  is  what  I  am  not  going  to  guarantee." 

Of  course  the  fellows  were  found  guilty  —  one 
of  stabbing,  the  other  of  art  and  part,  for  Mac- 
Lachlan was  no  friend  of  MacCailein  Mor,  and 
as  little  friend  to  the  merchant  burghers  of  Inne- 
raora,  for  he  had  the  poor  taste  to  buy  his  shop 
provand  from  the  Lament  towns  of  Low  Cowal. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  21 

"A  more  unfriendly  man  to  the  Laird  of  Mac- 
Lachlan  might  be  for  hanging  you  on  the  gibbet 
at  the  town-head,"  said  his  lordship  to  the  pris- 
oners, spraying  ink-sand  idly  on  the  clean  page  of 
a  statute-book  as  bespoke;  "but  our  three  trees 
upbye  are  leased  just  now  to  other  tenants,  — 
Badenoch  hawks  a  trifle  worse  than  yourselves, 
and  more  deserving." 

The  men  looked  stupidly  about  them,  knowing 
not  one  word  of  his  lordship's  English,  and  he 
was  always  a  man  who  disdained  to  converse  much 
in  Erse.  He  looked  a  little  cruelly  at  them  and 
went  on. 

"Perhaps  clipping  your  lugs  might  be  the  bon- 
niest way  of  showing  you  what  we  think  of  such 
on-goings  in  honest  Inneraora;  or  getting  the 
Doomster  to  bastinado  you  up  and  down  the 
street.  But  we  '11  try  what  a  fortnight  in  the  Tol- 
booth  may  do  to  amend  your  visiting  manners. 
Take  them  away,  officers." 

"  Aberidh  moran  taing —  say  *  many  thanks  '  to 
his  lordship,"  whispered  one  of  the  red-coat  hal- 
berdiers in  the  ear  of  the  bigger  of  the  two  pris- 
oners. I  could  hear  the  command  distinctly  where 
I  sat,  well  back  in  the  court,  and  so  no  doubt 
could  Gillesbeg  Gruamach,  but  he  was  used  to 
such  obsequious  foolishness  and  he  made  no  dis- 
sent or  comment. 

^^  Taing !  taing!'"  said  one  spokesman  of  the 
two  MacLachlans  in  his  hurried  Cowal  Gaelic, 
and  his  neighbour,  echoing  him  word  for  word 
in  the  comic  fashion  they  have   in   these   parts; 


22  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  Taijig  !  taing  !  I  never  louted  to  the  horseman 
that  rode  over  me  yet,  and  I  would  be  ill-advised 
to  start  with  the  Gruamach  one ! " 

The  man's  face  flushed  up  as  he  spoke.  It 's 
a  thing  I  've  noticed  about  our  own  poor  Gaelic 
men;  speaking  before  them  in  English  or  Scots, 
their  hollow  look  and  aloofness  would  give  one 
the  notion  that  they  lacked  sense  and  sparkle; 
take  the  muddiest-looking  among  them  and  chal- 
lenge him  in  his  own  tongue,  and  you  '11  find  his 
face  fill  with  wit  and  understanding. 

I  was  preparing  to  leave  the  court-room,  having 
many  people  to  call  on  in  Inneraora,  and  had 
turned  with  my  two  friends  to  the  door,  when  a 
fellow  brushed  in  past  us  —  a  Highlander,  I  could 
see,  but  in  trews  —  and  he  made  to  go  forward 
into  the  body  of  the  court,  as  if  to  speak  to  his 
lordship,  now  leaning  forward  in  a  cheerful  con- 
versation with  the  Provost  of  the  burgh,  a  sonsy 
gentleman  in  a  peruke  and  figured  waistcoat. 

"Who  is  he,  this  bold  fellow.^  "  I  asked  one  of 
my  friends,  pausing  with  a  foot  on  the  door-step, 
a  little  surprised  at  the  want  of  reverence  to  Mac- 
Cailein  in  the  man's  bearing. 

"  Iain  Aluinn  —  John  Splendid, "  said  my  friend. 
We  were  talking  in  the  Gaelic,  and  he  made  a 
jocular  remark  there  is  no  English  for.  Then  lie 
added,  "A  poor  cousin  of  the  Marquis,  a  M'lvcr 
Campbell  {on  the  ivrojig  side),  with  little  school- 
ing but  some  wit  and  gentlemanly  parts.  He 
has  gone  through  two  fortunes  in  black  cattle, 
fought  some  fighting  here  and  there,  and  now  he 


JOHN   SPLENDID  23 

manages  the  silver-mines  so  adroitly  that  Gilles- 
beg  Gruamach  is  ever  on  the  brink  of  getting  a 
big  fortune,  but  never  done  launching  out  a  little 
one  instead  to  keep  the  place  going.  A  decent 
soul  the  Splendid !  throughither  a  bit  and  better 
at  promise  than  performance,  but  at  the  core  as 
good  as  gold,  and  a  fellow  you  never  weary  of 
though  you  tramped  with  him  in  a  thousand 
glens." 

The  object  of  my  friend's  description  was  speak- 
ing into  the  ear  of  MacCailein  Mor  by  this  time, 
and  the  Marquis's  face  showed  his  tale  was  inter- 
esting, to  say  the  least  of  it. 

We  waited  no  more  but  went  out  into  the  street. 
I  was  barely  two  closes  off  from  the  Tolbooth 
when  a  messenger  came  running  after  me,  sent  by 
the  Marquis,  who  asked  if  I  would  oblige  greatly 
by  waiting  till  he  made  up  on  me.  I  went  back 
and  met  his  lordship  with  his  kinsman  and  mine- 
manager  coming  out  of  the  court-room  together 
into  the  lobby  that  divided  the  place  from  the 
street. 

"  Oh,  Elrigmore  !  "  said  the  Marquis,  in  an  off- 
hand jovial  and  equal  way  ;  "  I  thought  you  would 
like  to  meet  my  cousin  here  —  M'lver  Campbell 
of  the  Barbreck;  something  of  a  soldier  like  your- 
self, who  has  seen  service  in  Lowland  wars." 

"In  the  Scots  Brigade,  sir.?"  I  asked  M'lver, 
eyeing  him  with  greater  interest  than  ever.  He 
was  my  senior  by  half-a-dozen  years  seemingly,  a 
neat,  well-built  fellow,  clean-shaven,  a  little  over 
the  middle  height,  carrying  a  rattan  in  his  hand, 


24  JOHN    SPLENDID 

though   he  had  a  small  sword  tucked  under  the 
right  skirt  of  his  coat. 

"With  Lumsden's  regiment,"  he  said.  "His 
lordship  here  has  been  telling  me  you  have  just 
come  home  from  the  field." 

"But  last  night.  I  took  the  liberty  while 
Inneraora  was  snoring.  You  were  before  my  day 
in  foreign  service,  and  yet  I  thought  I  knew  by 
repute  every  Campbell  that  ever  fought  for  the 
hard-won  dollars  of  Gustivus  even  before  my  day. 
There  were  not  so  many  of  them  from  the  West 
Country. " 

"I  trailed  a  pike  privately,"  laughed  M'lver, 
"and  for  the  honour  of  Clan  Diarmaid  I  took  the 
name  Munro.  My  cousin  here  cares  to  have  none 
of  his  immediate  relatives  make  a  living  by  steel 
at  any  rank  less  than  a  cornal's,  or  a  major's,  at 
the  very  lowest.  Frankfort,  and  Landsberg,  and 
the  stark  field  of  Leipzig  were  all  I  saw  of  foreign 
battle,  and  the  God's  truth  is  they  were  my  belly- 
ful. I  like  a  bit  splore,  but  give  it  to  me  in  our 
old  style,  with  the  tartan  instead  of  buff,  and  the 
target  for  breastplate  and  taslets.  I  came  home 
sick  of  wars." 

"Our  friend  docs  himself  injustice,  my  dear 
Elrigmore, "  said  Gillesbeg,  smiling,  "he  came 
home  against  his  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  and  I 
know  he  brought  back  with  him  a  musketoon 
bullet  in  the  hip,  that  coupcd  him  by  the  heels 
down  in  Glassary  for  six  months." 

"The  result,"  M'lver  hurried  to  explain,  but 
putting  out  his  breast  with  a  touch  of  vanity,  "of 


JOHN   SPLENDID  25 

a  private  rencontre,  an  affair  of  my  own  with  a 
Reay  gentleman,  and  not  to  be  laid  to  my  credit 
as  part  of  the  war's  scaith  at  all." 

"You  conducted  your  duello  in  odd  style  under 
Lumsden,  surely,"  said  I,  "if  you  fought  with 
powder  and  ball  instead  of  steel,  which  is  more 
of  a  Highlander's  weapon  to  my  way  of  think- 
ing. All  our  affairs  in  the  Reay  battalion  were 
with  claymore  —  sometimes  with  targe,  sometimes 
wanting." 

"This  was  a  particular  business  of  our  own," 
laughed  John  Splendid  (for  so  I  may  go  on  to  call 
M'lver,  for  it  was  the  name  he  got  oftenest  behind 
and  before  in  Argile).  "  It  was  less  a  trial  of 
valour  than  a  wager  about  which  had  the  better 
skill  with  the  musket.  If  I  got  the  bullet  in  my 
groin,  I  at  least  showed  the  Mackay  gentleman  in 
question  that  an  Argile  man  could  handle  arque- 
bus as  well  as  arjne  blancJie  as  we  said  in  the 
France.  I  felled  my  man  at  thirty  paces,  with 
six  to  count  from  a  rittmaster's  signal.  'Blow, 
present,  God  sain  Mackay's  soul!  '  But  I  'm  not 
given  to  braggadocio." 

"Not  a  bit,  cousin,"  said  the  Marquis,  looking 
quizzingly  at  me. 

"  I  could  not  make  such  good  play  with 
the  gun  against  a  fort  gable  at  so  many  feet," 
said  I. 

"You  could,  sir,  you  could,"  said  John  Splendid 
in  an  easy,  off-hand,  flattering  way,  that  gave  me 
at  the  start  of  our  acquaintance  the  whole  key  to 
his  character.     "  I  've  little  doubt  you  could  allow 


26  JOHN   SPLENDID 

me   half-a-dozen  paces  and   come    closer  on   the 
centre  of  the  target." 

By  this  time  we  were  walking  down  the  left 
side  of  the  street,  the  Marquis  betwixt  the  pair  of 
us  commoners,  and  I  to  the  wall  side.  Low- 
landcrs  and  Highlanders  quickly  got  out  of  the 
way  before  us  and  gave  us  the  crown  of  the  cause- 
way. The  main  part  of  them  the  Marquis  never 
let  his  eye  light  on,  he  kept  his  nose  cocked  in 
the  air  in  the  way  I  've  since  found  peculiar  to  his 
family.  It  was  odd  to  me  that  had  in  wanderings 
got  to  look  on  all  honest  men  as  equal  (except 
Camp-Master  Generals  and  Pike  Colonels)  to  see 
some  of  his  lordship's  poor  clansmen  cringing 
before  him.  Here  indeed  was  the  leaven  of  your 
low  country  scum,  for  in  all  the  broad  Highlands 
wandering  before  and  since  I  never  saw  the  like ! 
"  Blood  of  my  blood,  brother  of  my  name !  "  says 
our  good  Gaelic  old-word :  it  made  no  insolcnts 
in  camp  or  castle,  but  it  kept  the  poorest  clans- 
men's head  up  before  the  highest  chief.  But 
there  was,  even  in  Baile  Inneraora,  sinking  in 
the  servile  ways  of  the  incomer,  something  too  of 
honest  worship  in  the  deportment  of  the  people. 
It  was  sure  enough  in  the  manner  of  an  old  woman 
with  a  face  peat-tanned  to  crinkled  leather  who 
ran  out  of  the  Vennel  or  lane  and  bending  to  the 
Marquis  his  lace  wrist-bands,  kissed  them  as  I  've 
seen  Papists  do  the  holy  duds  in  Notre  Dame  and 
Bruges  Kirk. 

This  display  before  me,  something  of  a  stranger, 
a   little   displeased  Gillesbeg  Gruamach.      "Tut, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  27 

tut!"  he  cried  in  Gaelic  to  the  cailleack,  "thou 
art  a  foolish  old  woman  !  " 

" God  keep  thee,  MacCailein!"  said  she;  "thy 
daddy  put  his  hand  on  my  head  like  a  son  when 
he  came  back  from  his  banishment  in  Spain,  and 
I  keened  over  thy  mother  dear  when  she  died. 
The  hair  of  Peggy  Bheg's  head  is  thy  door-mat, 
and  her  son's  blood  is  thy  will  for  a  foot-bath." 

"  Savage  old  harridan !  "  cried  the  Marquis, 
jerking  away;  but  I  could  see  he  was  not  now 
unpleased  altogether  that  a  man  new  from  the 
wide  world  and  its  ways  should  behold  how  much 
he  was  thought  of  by  his  people. 

He  put  his  hands  in  a  friendly  way  on  the 
shoulders  of  us  on  either  hand  of  him,  and  brought 
us  up  a  bit  round  turn,  facing  him  at  a  standstill 
opposite  the  door  of  the  English  kirk.  To  this 
day  I  mind  well  the  rumour  of  the  sea  that  came 
round  the  corner. 

"I  have  a  very  particular  business  with  both 
you  gentlemen,"  he  said.  "My  friend  here, 
M'lver,  has  come  post-haste  to  tell  me  of  a 
rumour  that  a  body  of  Irish  banditti  under 
Alasdair  MacDonald,  the  MacColkitto  as  we  call 
him,  has  landed  somewhere  about  Kinlochaline 
or  Knoydart.  This  portends  damnably,  if  I,  an 
elder  ordained  of  this  kirk,  may  say  so.  We 
have  enough  to  do  with  the  Athole  gentry  and 
others  nearer  home.  It  means  that  I  must  on 
with  plate  and  falchion  again,  and  out  on  the 
weary  road  for  war  I  have  little  stomach  for,  to 
tell  the  truth." 


28  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"You 're  able  for  the  best  of  them,  MacCailein, " 
cried  John  Splendid  in  a  hot  admiration.  "For  a 
scholar  you  have  as  good  judgment  on  the  field 
and  as  gallant  a  seat  on  the  saddle  as  any  man 
ever  I  saw  in  haberschone  and  morion.  With 
your  schooling  I  could  go  round  the  world 
conquering. " 

"Ah!  flatterer,  flatterer !     Ye  have  all  the  guile 
of  the  tongue  our  enemies  give  Clan    Campbell 
credit  for,  and  that  I  wish  I  had  a  little  more  of. 
Still  and  on,  it 's  no  time  for  fair  words.      Look! 
Elrigmore.     You  '11  have  heard  of  our  little  state 
in  this  shire  for  the  past  ten  years,  and  not  only 
in  this  shire  but  all  over  the  West  Highlands.      I 
give  you  my  word  I'm  no  sooner  with  the  belt  off 
me  and  my  chair  pulled  into  my  desk  and  papers 
than  it 's  some  one  beating  a  point  of  war  or  a  piper 
blowing  the  warning  under  my  window.      To  look 
at  my  history  for  the  past  few  years  any  one  might 
think  I  was  Dol'  Gorm  himself,    fight   and   plot, 
plot  and  fight !     How  can  I   help  it  —  thrust  into 
this  hornets'  nest  from  the  age  of  sixteen,  when 
my  father  {bcannacJid  Ids!)  took  me  out  warring 
against  the  islesmen,  and  I   only  in  the  humour 
for  playing  at  shinty  or  fishing  like  the  boys  on 
the  moorlochs  behind  the  town.      I  would  sooner 
be  a  cottar  in  Auchnagoul  down  there,  with  por- 
ridge for  my  every  meal,  than  constable,  chastiser, 
what  not,  or  whatever  I  am,   of  all  these  vexed 
Highlands.      Give  me  my  book  in  my   closet,  or 
at  worst  let  me  do  my  country's  work  in  a  court- 
ier's way  with  brains,  and  I  would  ask  no  more." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  29 

"Except  Badenoch  and  Nether  Lochaber  —  fat 
land,  fine  land,  MacCailein!"  said  John  Splendid, 
laughing  cunningly. 

The  Marquis's  face  flamed  up. 

"You're  an  ass,  John,"  he  said;  "picking  up 
the  countryside's  gossip.  I  have  no  love  for  the 
Athole  and  Great  Glen  folks,  as  ye  ken;  but  I 
could  long  syne  have  got  letters  of  fire  and  sword 
that  made  Badenoch  and  Nether  Lochaber  mine 
if  I  had  the  notion.  Don't  interrupt  me  with 
your  nonsense,  cousin;  I'm  telling  Elrigmore 
here,  for  he  's  young  and  has  skill  of  civilised 
war,  that  there  may  in  very  few  weeks  be  need 
of  every  arm  in  the  parish  or  shire  to  baulk 
Colkitto.  The  MacDonald  and  other  malignants 
have  been  robbing  high  and  low  from  Lochow  to 
Loch  Finne  this  while  back;  I  have  hanged  them 
a  score  a  month  at  the  town-head  there,  but  that 's 
dealing  with  small  affairs,  and  I  'm  sore  mistaken 
if  we  have  not  cruel  times  to  come." 

"Well,  sir,"  I  said.     "What  can  I  do.?  " 

The  Marquis  bit  his  moustachio  and  ran  a  spur 
on  the  ground  for  a  little  without  answering,  as 
one  in  a  quandary,  and  then  he  said,  "You  're  no 
vassal  of  mine.  Baron  "  (as  if  he  were  half  sorry 
for  it),  "but  all  you  Glen  Shira  folk  are  well 
disposed  to  me  and  mine,  and  have  good  cause, 
though  that  MacNaughton  fellow  's  a  Papisher. 
What  I  had  in  my  mind  was  that  I  might  count 
on  you  taking  a  company  of  our  fencible  men,  as 
John  here  is  going  to  do,  and  going  overbye 
to    Lorn  with    me  to  cut  off   those    Irish  black- 


30  JOHN    SPLENDID 

guards  of  Alasdair  MacDonald's  from  joining 
Montrose." 

For  some  minutes  I  stood  turning  the  thing 
over  in  my  mind,  being  by  nature  slow  to  take 
on  any  scheme  of  high  emprise  without  some 
scrupulous  balancing  of  chances.  Half-way  up 
the  closes,  in  the  dusk,  and  in  their  rooms,  well 
back  from  the  windows,  or  far  up  the  street,  all 
aloof  from  his  Majesty  MacCailein  Mor,  the  good 
curious  people  of  Inneraora  watched  us.  They 
could  little  guess  the  pregnancy  of  our  affairs. 
For  me,  I  thought  how  wearily  I  had  looked  for 
some  rest  from  wars,  at  home  in  Glen  Shira  after 
my  long  years  of  foreign  service :  now  that  I  was 
here,  and  my  mother  no  more,  my  old  father 
needed  me  on  hill  and  field;  Argile's  quarrel  was 
not  my  quarrel  until  Argile's  enemies  were  at 
the  foot  of  Ben  Bhuidhe  or  coming  all  boden  in 
fier  of  war  up  the  pass  of  Shira  Glen;  I  liked 
adventure,  and  a  captaincy  was  a  captaincy, 
but 

"  Is  it  boot  and  saddle  at  once,  my  lord  ?  "  I 
asked. 

"It  must  be  that  or  nothing.  When  a  viper's 
head  is  coming  out  of  a  hole,  crunch  it  inconti- 
nent, or  the  tail  may  be  more  than  you  can 
manage. " 

"Then,  my  lord,"  said  I,  "I  must  cry  off.  On 
this  jaunt  at  least.  It  would  be  my  greatest 
pleasure  to  go  with  you  and  my  friend  M'lver, 
not  to  mention  all  the  good  fellows  I  'm  bound  to 
know  in  rank  in  your  regiment,  but  for  my  duty 


JOHN   SPLENDID  31 

to  my  father  and  one  or  two  other  considerations 
that  need  not  be  named.  But  —  if  this  be  any 
use  —  I  give  my  word  that  should  MacDonald 
or  any  other  force  come  this  side  the  passes  at 
Accurach  Hill,  or  anywhere  east  Lochow,  my 
time  and  steel  are  yours." 

MacCailein  Mor  looked  a  bit  annoyed,  and  led 
us  at  a  fast  pace  up  to  the  gate  of  the  castle  that 
stood,  high  towered  and  embrasured  for  heavy 
pieces,  stark  and  steeve  above  town  Inneraora. 
A  most  curious,  dour,  and  moody  man,  with  a 
mind  roving  from  key  to  key.  Every  now  and 
then  he  would  stop  and  think  a  little  without  a 
word,  then  on,  and  run  his  fingers  through  his 
hair  or  fumble  nervously  at  his  leathern  buttons, 
paying  small  heed  to  the  Splendid  and  I,  who 
convoyed  him,  so  we  got  into  a  crack  about  the 
foreign  field  of  war. 

"Quite  right,  Elrigmore,  quite  right,"  at  last 
cried  the  Marquis,  pulling  up  short,  and  looked 
me  plumb  in  the  eyes.  "Bide  at  hame  while  bide 
ye  may.  I  would  never  go  on  this  affair  myself 
if  by  God's  grace  I  was  not  Marquis  of  Argile  and 
son  of  a  house  with  many  bitter  foes.  But,  hark 
ye!  a  black  day  looms  for  these  over  home-lands 
if  ever  Montrose  and  those  Irish  dogs  get  through 
our  passes.  For  twenty  thousand  pounds  Saxon 
I  would  not  have  the  bars  off  the  two  roads  of 
Accurach !  And  I  thank  you,  Elrigmore,  that  at 
the  worst  I  can  count  on  your  service  at  home. 
We  may  need  good  men  here  on  Loch  Finneside 
as  well  as  further  afield,    overrun  as  we  are  by 


32  JOHN   SPLENDID 

the  blackguardism  of  the  North  and  the  Papist 
clans  around  us.  Come  in,  friends,  and  have  your 
meridian.  I  have  a  flagon  of  French  brown  brandy 
you  never  tasted  the  equal  of  in  any  town  you 
sacked  in  all  Low  Germanic." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  33 


CHAPTER   III 

John  Splendid  looked  at  me  from  the  corner  of 
an  eye  as  we  came  out  again  and  daundered  slowly 
down  the  town. 

"A  queer  one  yon ! "  said  he,  as  it  were  feeling 
his  way  with  a  rapier-point  at  my  mind  about  his 
Marquis. 

"Imph'm,"  I  muttered,  giving  him  parry  of 
low  quarte  like  a  good  swordsman,  and  he  came 
to  the  recover  with  a  laugh. 

"  Foil,  Elrigmore !  "  he  cried.  "  But  we  're 
soldiers  and  lads  of  the  world,  and  you  need 
hardly  be  so  canny.  You  see  MacCailein's  points 
as  well  as  I  do.  His  one  weakness  is  the  old  one 
—  books,  books,  —  the  curse  of  the  Highlands  and 
every  man  of  spirit,  say  I !  He  has  the  stuff  in 
him  by  nature,  for  none  can  deny  Clan  Diarmaid 
courage  and  knightliness;  but  for  four  generations 
court,  closet,  and  college  have  been  taking  the 
heart  out  of  our  chiefs.  Had  our  lordship  in-bye 
been  sent  a  fostering  in  the  old  style,  brought  up 
to  the  chase  and  the  sword  and  manly  comport- 
ment, he  would  not  have  that  wan  cheek  this  day, 
and  that  swithering  about  what  he  must  be  at 
next ! " 

"You  forget  that  I  have  had  the  same  ill- 
training,"   I  said  (in  no  bad  humour,  for  I   fol- 

3 


34  JOHN   SPLENDID 

lowed  his  mind).  "I  had  a  touch  of  Glascow 
College  myself." 

"Yes,  yes,"  he  answered  quickly;  "you  had 
that,  but  by  all  accounts  it  did  you  no  harm. 
You  learned  little  of  what  they  teach  there." 

This  annoyed  me,  I  confess,  and  John  Splendid 
was  gleg  enough  to  see  it. 

"I  mean,"  he  added,  "you  caught  no  fever  for 
paper  and  ink,  though  you  may  have  learned  many 
a  quirk  I  was  the  better  of  myself.  I  could  never 
even  write  my  name;  and  I  've  kept  compt  of 
wages  at  the  mines  with  a  pickle  chuckie-stones. " 

"That  's  a  pity,"  says  I,  drily. 

"Oh,  never  a  bit,"  says  he  gaily,  or  at  any  rate 
with  a  way  as  if  to  carry  it  off  vauntingly.  "  I 
can  do  many  things  as  well  as  most,  and  a  few 
others  colleges  never  learned  me.  I  know  many 
sgenlacJidan,  from  '  Minochag  and  Morag  '  to  *  The 
Shifty  Lad  ' ;  I  can  make  passable  poetry  by  word 
of  mouth  ;  I  can  speak  the  English  and  the  French  ; 
and  I  have  seen  enough  of  courtiers  to  know  that 
half  their  canons  are  to  please  and  witch  the  eye 
of  women  in  a  way  that  I  could  undertake  to  do 
by  my  looks  alone  and  some  good-humour.  Show 
me  a  beast  on  hill  or  in  glen  I  have  not  the  his- 
tory of;  and  if  dancing,  singing,  the  sword,  the 
gun,  the  pipes  —  ah,  not  the  pipes,  —  it 's  my  one 
envy  in  the  world  to  play  the  bagpipes  with  some 
show  of  art  and  delicacy,  and  I  cannot.  Queer  is 
that,  indeed,  and  I  so  keen  on  them !  I  would 
tramp  right  gaily  a  night  and  a  day  on  end  to 
hear  a  scholar  fingering  *  The  Glen  is  Mine.'  " 


JOHN   SPLENDID  35 

There  was  a  witless  vanity  about  my  friend  that 
sat  on  him  ahnost  like  a  virtue.  He  made  parade 
of  his  crafts  less,  I  could  see,  because  he  thought 
much  of  them  than  because  he  wanted  to  keep 
himself  on  an  equality  with  me.  In  the  same 
way,  as  I  hinted  before,  he  never,  in  all  the  time 
of  our  wanderings  after,  did  a  thing  well  before 
me  but  he  bode  to  keep  up  my  self-respect  by 
maintaining  that  I  could  do  better  or  at  least  as 
good. 

"Books,  I  say,''  he  went  on,  as  we  clinked  heels 
on  the  causeway-stones,  and  between  my  little  bit 
cracks  with  old  friends  in  the  by-going,  —  "  books, 
I  say,  have  spoiled  MacCailein's  stomach.  Ken 
ye  what  he  told  me  once.-*  That  a  man  might 
readily  show  more  valour  in  a  conclusion  come  to 
in  the  privacy  of  his  bed-closet  than  in  a  victory 
won  on  the  field.  That 's  what  they  teach  by  way 
of  manly  doctrine  down  there  in  the  new  English 
church,  under  the  pastorage  of  Maistcr  Alexander 
Gordon,  chaplain  to  his  lordship  and  minister  to 
his  lordship's  people !  It  must  be  the  old  Cavalier 
in  me,  but  somehow  (in  your  lug)  I  have  no  broo 
of  those  Covenanting  cattle  from  the  low  country; 
though  Gordon  's  a  good  soul,  there  's  no  denying." 

"Are  you  Catholic?  "  I  said,  in  a  surprise. 

"What  are  you  yourself.''"  he  asked,  more 
Scotticb  (as  we  say  in  the  Humanities),  and  then 
he  flushed,  for  he  saw  a  little  smile  in  my  face  at 
the  transparency  of  his  endeavour  to  be  always  on 
the  pleasing  side. 

"To  tell  the  truth,"  he  said,  "I  'm  depending 


36  JOHN   SPLENDID 

on  salvation  by  reason  of  a  fairly  good  heart,  and 
an  eagerness  to  wrong  no  man,  gentle  or  semple. 
I  love  my  fellows,  one  and  all,  not  offhand  as  the 
Catechism  enjoins,  but  heartily,  and  I  never  saw 
the  fellow,  carl  or  king,  who,  if  ordinary  honest 
and  cheerful,  I  could  not  lie  heads  and  thraws 
with  at  a  camp-fire.  In  matters  of  strict  ritual, 
now,  — ha  —  um  !  " 

"Out  with  it,  man!"  I  cried,  laughing. 

"I'm  like  Parson  Kilmalieu  upbye.  You've 
heard  of  him  —  easy-going  soul,  and  God  sain 
him !  When  it  came  to  the  bit,  he  turned  the 
holy-water  font  of  Kilachatrine  blue-stone  upside- 
down,  scooped  a  hole  in  the  bottom,  and  used 
the  new  hollow  for  Protestant  baptism.  '  There  's 
such  a  throng  about  heaven's  gate,'  said  he,  '  that 
it  's  only  a  mercy  to  open  two;  '  and  he  was  a 
good  and  humoursome  Protestant-Papist  till  the 
day  he  went  under  the  flagstones  of  his  chapel 
upbye." 

Now  here  was  not  a  philosophy  to  my  mind.  I 
fought  in  the  German  wars  less  for  the  kreutzers 
than  for  a  belief  (never  much  studied  out,  but 
fervent)  that  Protestantism  was  the  one  good 
faith,  and  that  her  ladyshi^^  of  Babylon,  that  's 
ever  on  the  ran-dan,  cannot  have  her  downfall  one 
day  too  soon.  You  dare  not  be  playing  corners- 
change-corners  with  religion  as  you  can  with  the 
sword  of  what  the  ill-bred  have  called  a  mercenary 
(when  you  come  to  ponder  on  't,  the  swords  of 
patriot  or  paid  man  are  both  for  selfish  ends  un- 
sheathed), and  if  I  set  down  here  word  for  word 


JOHN    SPLENDID  37 

what  John  Splendid  said,  it  must  not  be  thought 
to  be  in  homologation  on  my  part  of  such  lati- 
tudinarianism. 

I  let  him  run  on  in  this  key  till  we  came  to  the 
change -house  of  a  widow  —  one  Fraser  —  and  as 
she  curtsied  at  the  door,  and  asked  if  the  braw 
gentlemen  would  favour  her  poor  parlour,  we  went 
in  and  tossed  a  quaich  or  two  of  aqua,  to  which 
end  she  set  before  us  a  little  brown  bottle  and  two 
most  cunningly  contrived  and  carven  cups  made 
of  the  Coillebhraid  silver. 

The  houses  in  Inneraora  were,  and  are,  built  all 
very  much  alike,  on  a  plan  I  thought  somewhat 
cosy  and  genteel,  ere  ever  I  went  abroad  and 
learned  better.  I  do  not  even  now  deny  the  cosie- 
ness  of  them,  but  of  the  genteelity  it  were  well  to 
say  little.  They  were  tall  lands  or  tenements, 
three  storeys  high,  with  through-going  closes,  or 
what  the  English  might  nominate  passages,  run- 
ning from  front  to  back,  and  leading  at  their 
midst  to  stairs,  whereby  the  occupants  got  to 
their  domiciles  in  the  flats  above.  Curved  stairs 
they  were,  of  the  same  blue  stone  the  castle  is 
built  of,  and  on  their  landings  at  each  storey  they 
branched  right  and  left  to  give  access  to  the  single 
apartments  or  rooms  and  kitchens  of  the  resi- 
denters.  Throng  tenements  they  are  these,  even 
yet,  giving,  as  I  write,  clever  children  to  the 
world.  His  Grace  nowadays  might  be  granting 
the  poor  people  a  little  more  room  to  grow  in, 
some  soil  for  their  kail,  and  a  better  prospect 
from  their  windows  than  the  whitewashed  wall  of 


38  JOHN    SPLENDID 

the  opposite  land ;  but  in  the  matter  of  air  there 
was  and  is  no  complaint.  The  sea  in  stormy  days 
came  bellowing  to  the  very  doors,  salt  and  sting- 
ing, tremendous  blue  and  cold.  Staying  in  town 
of  a  night,  I  used  to  lie  awake  in  my  relative's, 
listening  to  the  spit  of  the  waves  on  the  window- 
panes  and  the  grumble  of  the  tide,  that  rocked 
the  land  I  lay  in  till  I  could  well  fancy  it  was  a 
ship.  Through  the  closes  of  a  night  the  wind 
ever  stalked  like  something  fierce  and  blooded, 
rattling  the  iron  snecks  with  an  angry  finger, 
breathing  beastily  at  the  hinge,  and  running  back 
a  bit  once  in  a  while  to  leap  all  the  harder  against 
groaning  lintel  and  post. 

The  change-house  of  the  widow  was  on  the 
ground-flat,  a  but  and  ben,  the  ceilings  arched 
with  stone  —  a  strange  device  in  masonry  you '11 
find  seldom  elsewhere.  Highland  or  Lowland. 
But  she  had  a  garret-room  up  two  stairs  where 
properly  she  abode,  the  close  flat  being  reserved 
for  trade  of  vending  iiisgebaigJi  and  ale.  I  describe 
all  this  old  place  so  fully  because  it  bears  on  a 
little  affair  that  happened  therein  on  that  day 
John  Splendid  and  I  went  in  to  clink  glasses. 

The  widow  had  seen  that  neither  of  us  was  very 
keen  on  her  aqua,  which,  as  it  happened,  was  raw 
new  stuff  brewed  over  at  Kames,  Lochow,  and 
she  asked  would  we  prefer  some  of  her  brandy. 

"After  his  lordship's  it  might  be  something  of 
a  downcome,"  said  John  Splendid,  half  to  me  and 
half  to  the  woman. 

She  caught   his   meaning,  though   he  spoke  in 


.JOHN   SPLENDID  39 

the  English,  and  in  our  own  tongue,  laughing 
toothlessly,  she  said,  — 

"The  same  stilling,  Barbreck,  the  same  stilling 
I  make  no  doubt.  MacCailein  gets  his  brown 
brandy  by  my  brother's  cart  from  French  F^ore- 
land ;  it's  a  rough  road,  and  sometimes  a  bottle 
or  two  spills  on  the  way.  I  've  a  flagon  up  in  a 
cupboard  in  my  little  garret,  and  I  '11  go  fetch  it." 

She  was  over-old  a  woman  to  climb  three  steep 
stairs  for  the  sake  of  two  young  men's  drought, 
and  I  (having  always  some  regard  for  the  frail) 
took  the  key  from  her  hand  and  went,  as  was  com- 
mon enough  with  her  younger  customers,  seeking 
my  own  liquor  up  the  stair. 

In  those  windy  flights  in  the  fishing  season 
there  is  often  the  close  smell  of  herring-scale,  of 
bow  tar  and  the  bark-tan  of  the  fishing  nets ;  but 
this  stair  I  climbed  for  the  wherewithal  was  un- 
usually sweet  odoured  and  clean,  because  on  the 
first  floor  was  the  house  of  Provost  Brown  —  a 
Campbell  and  a  Gael,  but  burdened  by  accident 
with  a  Lowland-sounding  cognomen.  He  had  the 
whole  flat  to  himself  —  half  a  dozen  snug  apart- 
ments with  windows  facing  the  street  or  the  sea 
as  he  wanted.  I  was  just  at  the  head  of  the  first 
flight  when  out  of  a  door  came  a  girl,  and  I 
clean  forgot  all  about  the  widow's  flask  of  French 
brandy. 

Little  more  than  twelve  years  syne  the  Provost's 
daughter  had  been  a  child  at  the  grammar  school, 
whose  one  annoyance  in  life  was  that  the  dominie 
called  her  Betsy  instead  of   Betty,  her  real  own 


40  JOHN    SPLENDID 

name;  here  she  was,  in  the  flat  of  her  father's 
house  in  Inneraora  town,  a  full-grown  woman, 
who  gave  me  check  in  my  stride  and  set  my  face 
flaming.  I  took  in  her  whole  appearance  at  one 
glance  —  a  way  we  have  in  foreign  armies.  Be- 
tween my  toe  on  the  last  step  of  the  stair  and  the 
landing  I  read  the  picture :  a  well-bred  woman, 
from  her  carriage,  the  neatness  of  her  apparel,  the 
composure  of  her  pause  to  let  me  bye  in  the  nar- 
row passage  to  the  next  stair;  not  very  tall  (I 
have  ever  had  a  preference  for  such  as  come  no 
higher  than  neck  and  oxter) ;  very  dark  brown 
hair,  eyes  sparkling,  a  face  rather  pale  than  ruddy, 
soft  skinned,  full  of  a  keen  nervousness. 

In  this  matter  of  a  woman's  eyes  —  if  I  may 
quit  the  thread  of  my  history  —  I  am  a  trifle  fas- 
tidious, and  I  make  bold  to  say  that  the  finest 
eyes  in  the  world  are  those  of  the  Highland  girls 
of  Argile  —  burgh  or  landward  —  the  best  bred 
and  gentlest  of  them  I  mean.  There  is  in  them 
a  full  and  melting  friendliness,  a  mixture  to 
my  sometimes  notion  of  poetry  and  of  calm  —  a 
memory,  as  I  've  thought  before,  of  the  deep 
misty  glens  and  their  sights  and  secrets.  I  have 
seen  more  of  the  warm  heart  and  merriment  in  a 
simple  Loch  Finne  girl's  eyes  than  in  all  the 
faces  of  all  the  grand  dames  ever  I  looked  on, 
Lowland  or  foreign. 

What  pleased  me  first  and  foremost  about  this 
girl  Betty,  daughter  of  Provost  Brown,  were  her 
eyes,  then,  that  showed,  even  in  yon  dusky  pas- 
sage, a  humoursomc  interest  in  young  Elrigmore 


JOHN    SPLENDID  41 

in  a  kilt  coming  up-stairs  swinging  on  a  finger 
the  key  of  Lucky  Fraser's  garret.  She  hung  back 
doubtfully,  though  she  knew  me  (I  could  see)  for 
her  old  school-fellow  and  sometime  boy-lover, 
but  I  saw  something  of  a  welcome  in  the  blush 
at  her  face,  and  I  gave  her  no  time  to  chill 
to  me. 

"Betty  lass,  'tis  you,"  said  I,  putting  out  a 
hand  and  shaking  her  soft  fingers.  "What  think 
you  of  my  ceremony  in  calling  at  the  earliest 
chance  to  pay  my  devoirs  to  the  Provost  of  this 
burgh  and  his  daughter }  " 

I  put  the  key  behind  my  back  to  give  colour  a 
little  to  my  words  ;  but  my  lady  saw  it  and  jumped 
at  my  real  errand  on  the  stair,  with  that  quick- 
ness ever  accompanying  eyes  of  the  kind  I  have 
mentioned. 

"Ceremony  here,  devoir  there !  "  said  she,  smil- 
ing, "  there  was  surely  no  need  for  a  key  to  our 
door,  Elrigmore " 

"Colin,  Mistress  Brown,  plain  Colin,  if  you 
please." 

"Colin,  if  you  will,  though  it  seems  daftlike  to 
be  so  free  with  a  soldier  of  twelve  years'  fortune. 
You  were  for  the  widow's  garret.  Does  some  one 
wait  on  you  below }  " 

"John  Splendid." 

"My  mother 's  in-bye.  She  will  be  pleased  to 
see  you  back  again  if  you  and  your  friend  call. 
After  you  've  paid  the  lawing,"  she  added,  smiling 
like  a  rogue. 

"That  will  we,"  said  I;  but  I  hung  on  the  stair- 


42  JOHN    SPLENDID 

head,  and  she  leaned  on  the  inner  sill  of  the  stair 
window. 

We  got  into  a  discourse  upon  old  days,  that 
brought  a  glow  to  my  heart  the  brandy  I  forgot 
had  never  brought  to  my  head.  We  talked  of 
school,  and  the  gay  days  in  wood  and  field,  of  our 
childish  wanderings  on  the  shore,  making  sand- 
keps  and  stone  houses,  herding  the  crabs  of  God 
—  so  little  that  bairns  dare  not  be  killing  them, 
of  venturings  to  sea  many  ells  out  in  tow-caulked 
herring-boxes,  of  journeys  into  the  brave  deep 
woods  that  lie  far  and  wide  round  Inneraora,  seek- 
ing the  spruce  branch  for  the  Beltane  fire;  of 
nutting  in  the  hazels  of  the  glens,  and  feasts  upon 
the  berry  on  the  brae.  Later,  the  harvest -home 
and  the  dance  in  green  or  barn  when  I  was  at 
almost  my  man's  height,  with  the  pluck  to  put  a 
bare  lip  to  its  apprenticeship  on  a  woman's  cheek; 
the  songs  at  ceilidh  fires,  the  telling  of  sgculacJuian 
and  fairy  tales  up  on  the  mountain  shelling 

"Let  me  see,"  said  I;  "when  I  went  abroad, 
were  not  you  and  one  of  the  Glenaora  Campbells 
chief.?" 

I  said  it  as  if  the  recollection  had  but  sprung  to 
me,  while  the  truth  is  I  had  thought  on  it  often 
in  camp  and  field,  with  a  regret  that  the  girl 
should  throw  herself  off  on  so  poor  a  partner. 

She  laughed  merrily  with  her  whole  soul  in  the 
business,  and  her  face  without  art  or  pretence  —  a 
fashion  most  wholesome  to  behold. 

"  He  married  someone  nearer  him  in  years  long 
syne,"  said  she.     "You  forget  I  was  but  a  bairn 


JOHN   SPLENDID  43 

when  we  romped  in  the  hay-dash."  And  we 
buckled  to  the  crack  again,  I  more  keen  on  it 
than  ever.  She  was  a  most  marvellous  fine  girl, 
and  I  thought  her  {well  I  mind  me  now)  like  the 
blue  harebell  that  nods  upon  our  heather  hills. 

We  might,  for  all  I  dreamt  of  the  widow's 
brandy,  have  been  conversing  on  the  stair-head 
yet,  and  my  story  had  a  different  conclusion,  had 
not  a  step  sounded  on  the  stair,  and  up  banged 
John  Splendid,  his  sword-scabbard  clinking  against 
the  wall  of  the  stair  with  the  haste  of  him. 

"  Set  a  Cavalier  at  the  side  of  an  anker  of 
brandy,"  he  cried,  "and " 

Then  he  saw  he  was  in  company.  He  took 
off  his  bonnet  with  a  sweep  I  '11  warrant  he  never 
learned  anywhere  out  of  France,  and  plunged  into 
the  thick  of  our  discourse  with  a  query. 

"At  your  service.  Mistress  Brown,"  said  he. 
"  Half  my  errand  to  town  to-day  was  to  find  if 
young  MacLachlan,  your  relative,  is  to  be  at  the 
market  here  to-morrow.     If  so " 

"  He  is,"  said  Betty. 

"  Will  he  be  intending  to  put  up  here  all  night, 
then .?  " 

"He  comes  to  supper  at  least,"  said  she,  "and 
his  biding  overnight  is  yet  to  be  settled." 

John  Splendid  toyed  with  the  switch  in  his 
hand  in  seeming  abstraction,  and  yet  as  who  was 
pondering  on  how  to  put  an  unwelcome  message 
in  plausible  language. 

"Do  you  know,"  said  he  at  last  to  the  girl,  in 
a  low  voice,  for  fear  his  words  should  reach  the 


44  JOHN    SPLENDID 

ears  of  her  mother  in-bye,  "  I  would  as  well  see 
MacLachlan  out  of  town  the  morn's  night. 
There  's  a  waft  of  cold  airs  about  this  place  not 
particularly  wholesome  for  any  of  his  clan  -or 
name.  So  much  I  would  hardly  care  to  say  to 
himself;  but  he  might  take  it  from  you,  madam, 
that  the  other  side  of  the  loch  is  the  safest  place 
for  sound  sleep  for  some  time  to  come." 

"Is  it  the  MacNicolls  you're  thinking  of.-*" 
asked  the  girl. 

"That  same,  my  dear." 

"You  ken,"  he  went  on,  turning  fuller  round 
to  me,  to  tell  a  story  he  guessed  a  new-comer  was 
unlikely  to  know  the  ins  and  outs  of —  "  You  ken 
that  one  of  the  MacLachlans,  a  cousin-german  of 
old  Lachie  the  chief,  cam'  over  in  a  boat  to 
Braleckan  a  few  weeks  syne  on  an  old  feud,  and 
put  a  bullet  into  a  MacNicoll,  a  peaceable  lad 
who  was  at  work  in  a  field.  Gay  times,  gay 
times,  aren't  they?  From  behind  a  dyke  wall 
too  —  a  far  from  gentlemanly  escapade  even  in  a 
MacLa Pardon,  mistress,  I  forgot  your  rela- 
tionship, but  this  was  surely  a  very  low  dog  of 
his  kind.  Now  from  that  day  to  this  the  mur- 
thcrer  is  to  find  ;  there  are  some  to  say  old  Lachie 
could  put  his  hand  on  him  at  an  hour's  notice  if 
he  had  the  notion.  But  his  lordship,  Justiciar- 
General,  upbye,  has  sent  his  provost-marshal  with 
letters  of  arrest  to  the  place  in  vain.  Now  here  's 
my  story.  The  MacNicolls  of  Elrig  have  joined 
cause  with  their  cousins  and  namesakes  of  Bra- 
leckan ;  there 's  a  wheen  of  both  to  be  in  the  town 


JOHN    SPLENDID  45 

at  the  market  to-morrow,  and  if  young  MacLach- 
lan  bides  in  this  house  of  yours  overnight,  Mis- 
tress Betty  Brown,  you  'II  maybe  hae  broken  delf 
and  worse  ere  the  day  daw." 

Mistress  Brown  took  it  very  coolly,  and  as  for 
me,  I  was  thinkhig  of  a  tiny  brown  mole-spot  she 
used  to  have  low  on  the  white  of  her  neck  when  I 
put  daisy-links  on  her  on  the  summers  wc  played 
on  the  green,  and  wondering  if  it  was  still  to  the 
fore  and  hid  below  her  collar.  In  by  the  window 
came  the  saucy  breeze  and  kissed  her  on  a  curl 
that  danced  above  her  ear. 

"  I  hope  there  will  be  no  lawlessness  here,"  said 
she :  "  if  the  gentleman  zvilL  go,  he  will  go  home ; 
if  he  bides,  he  bides,  and  surely  the  burghers  of 
Inneraora  will  not  quietly  see  their  Provost's  dom- 
icile invaded  by  brawlers." 

"Exactly  so,"  said  John  Splendid,  drily. 
"  Nothing  may  come  of  it,  but  you  might  mention 
the  affair  to  MacLachlan  if  you  have  the  chance. 
For  me  to  tell  him  would  be  to  put  him  in  the 
humour  for  staying — dour  fool  that  he  is  —  out 
of  pure  bravado  and  defiance.  To  tell  the  truth, 
I  would  bide  myself  in  such  a  case.  '  Thole  feud  ' 
is  my  motto.  My  grand-dad  writ  it  on  the  butt  of 
his  sword-blade  in  clear  round  print  letters,  I  've 
often  marvelled  at  the  skill  of  If  it's  your  will, 
Elrigmore.  we  may  be  doing  without  the  brandy, 
and  give  the  house-dame  a  call  now," 

We  went  in  and  paid  our  duties  to  the  good  wife, 
—  a  silver-haired  dame  with  a  wonderful  number  of 
Betty's  turns  in  her  voice,  and  ready  sober  smile. 


46  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   IV 

Writing  all  this  old  ancient  history  down,  I  find 
it  hard  to  riddle  out  in  my  mind  the  things  that 
have  really  direct  and  pregnant  bearing  on  the 
matter  in  hand.  I  am  tempted  to  say  a  word  or 
two  anent  my  Lord  Marquis's  visit  to  my  father, 
and  his  vain  trial  to  get  me  enlisted  into  his  corps 
for  Lorn.  Something  seems  due,  also,  to  be  said 
about  the  kindness  I  found  from  all  the  old  folks 
of  Inneraora,  ever  proud  to  see  a  lad  of  their  own 
of  some  repute  come  back  among  them ;  and  of 
my  father's  grieving  about  his  wae  widowerhood  ; 
but  these  things  must  stand  by  while  I  narrate 
how  there  arose  a  wild  night  in  town  Inneraora, 
with  the  Highlandmcn  from  the  glens  into  it  with 
dirlc  and  sword  and  steel  Doune  pistols,  the  flam- 
beaux flaring  against  the  tall  lands,  and  the  Low- 
land burghers  of  the  place  standing  up  for  peace 
and  tranquil  sleep. 

The  market  day  came  on  the  morning  after  the 
day  John  Splendid  and  I  foregathered  with  my 
Lord  Archibald.  It  was  a  smaller  market  than 
usual,  by  reason  of  the  troublous  times;  but  a  few 
black  and  red  cattle  came  from  the  landward  part 
of  the  parish  and  Knapdale  side,  while  Lochow 
and  Brcadaibane  sent  hoof  nor  horn.  There  was 
never    a  blacker  sien  of  the  times'    unrest.     But 


JOHN    SPLENDID  47 

men  came  from  many  parts  of  the  sliire,  with  their 
chieftains  or  lairds,  and  there  they  went  clamping 
about  this  Lowland-looking  town  like  foreigners. 
I  counted  ten  tartans  in  as  many  minutes  between 
the  Cross  and  the  kirk,  most  of  them  friendly  with 
MacCailein  Mor,  but  a  few,  like  that  of  Mac- 
Lachlan  of  that  ilk,  at  variance,  and  the  wearers 
with  ugly  whingers  or  claymores  at  their  belts. 
Than  those  MacLachlans  one  never  saw  a  more 
barbarous-looking  set.  There  were  a  dozen  of 
them  in  the  tail  or  retinue  of  old  Lachie's  son, — 
a  henchman,  piper,  piper's  valet,  gillc-niorc,  gillc- 
cas-flcuch  or  running  footman,  and  such  others  as 
the  more  vain  of  our  Highland  gentry  at  the  time 
ever  insisted  on  travelling  about  with,  all  stout 
junky  men  of  middle  size,  bearded  to  the  brows, 
wearing  flat  blue  bonnets  with  a  pervenke  plant 
for  badge  on  the  sides  of  them,  on  their  feet  deer- 
skin brogues  with  the  hair  out,  the  rest  of  their 
costume  all  belted  tartan,  and  with  arms  clattering 
about  them.  With  that  proud  pretence  which  is 
common  in  our  people  when  in  strange,  unfamiliar 
occasions,  —  and  I  would  be  the  last  to  dispraise 
it,  —  they  went  about  by  no  means  braggardly  but 
with  the  aspect  of  men  who  had  better  streets  and 
more  shops  to  show  at  home;  surprised  at  nothing 
in  their  alert  moments,  but  now  and  again  for- 
getting their  dignity  and  looking  into  little  shop- 
windows  with  the  wonder  of  bairns,  and  great 
gabbling  together  till  MacLachlan  fluted  on  his 
whistle,  and  they  came,  like  good  hounds,  to 
heel. 


48  JOHN    SPLENDID 

All  day  the  town  hummed  with  Gaelic  and  the 
round  bellowing  of  cattle.  It  was  clear  warm 
weather,  never  a  breath  of  wind  to  stir  the  gilding 
trees  behind  the  burgh.  At  ebb-tide  the  sea-beach 
whitened  and  smoked  in  the  sun,  and  the  hot  air 
quivered  over  the  stones  and  the  crisping  wrack. 
In  such  a  season  the  bustling  town  in  the  heart  of 
the  stern  Highlands  seemed  a  fever  spot.  Children 
came  boldly  up  to  us  for  fairings  or  gifts,  and  they 
strayed  —  the  scamps  !  —  behind  the  droves  and 
thumped  manfully  on  the  buttocks  of  the  cattle. 
A  constant  stream  of  men  passed  in  and  out  at  the 
change-house  closes  and  about  the  Fisherland  ten- 
ements, where  seafarers  and  drovers  together  sang 
the  maddest  love-ditties  in  the  voices  of  roaring 
bulls ;  beating  the  while  with  their  feet  on  the 
floor  in  our  foolish  Gaelic  fashion,  or,  as  one  could 
see  through  open  windows,  rugging  and  riving  at 
the  corners  of  a  plaid  spread  between  them,  a 
trick,  I  daresay,  picked  up  from  women,  who  at 
the  waulking  or  washing  of  woollen  cloth  new  spun, 
pull  out  the  fabric  to  tunes  suited  to  such  occasions. 

I  spent  most  of  the  day  with  John  Splendid  and 
one  Tearlach  (or  Charles)  Fraser,  an  old  comrade, 
and  as  luck,  good  or  ill,  would  have  it,  the  small 
hours  of  morning  were  on  me  before  I  thought  of 
going  home.  By  dusk  the  bulk  of  the  strangers 
left  the  town  by  the  highroads,  among  them  the 
MacNicolls,  who  had  only  by  the  cunning  of 
mutual  friends  (Splendid  as  busy  as  any),  been 
kept  from  coming  to  blows  with  the  MacLachlan 
tail.     Earlier  in  the   day,  by  a  galley  or  wherry, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  49 

the  MacLachlans  also  had  left,  but  not  the  young 
laird,  who  put  up  for  the  night  at  the  house  of 
Provost   Brown. 

The  three  of  us  I  have  mentioned  sat  at  last 
playing  cartes  in  the  ferry-house,  where  a  good 
glass  could  be  had  and  more  tidiness  than  most  of 
the  hostelries  in  the  place  could  boast  of.  By  the 
stroke  of  midnight  we  were  the  only  customers 
left  in  the  house,  and  when,  an  hour  after,  I  made 
the  move  to  set  out  for  Glen  Shira,  John  Splendid 
yoked  on  me  as  if  my  sobriety  were  a  crime. 

"  Wait,  man,  wait,  and  I  '11  give  you  a  convoy 
up  the  way,"  he  would  say,  never  thinking  of  the 
road  he  had  himself  to  go  down  to  Coillebhraid. 

And  aye  it  grew  late  and  the  night  more  still. 
There  would  be  a  foot  going  by  at  first  at  short 
intervals,  sometimes  a  staggering  one  and  a  voice 
growling  to  itself  in  Gaelic ;  and  anon  the  way- 
farers were  no  more,  the  world  outside  in  a 
black  and  solemn  silence.  The  man  who  kept  the 
ferry-house  was  often  enough  in  the  custom  of 
staying  up  all  night  to  meet  belated  boats  from 
Kilcatrine ;  we  were  gcntrice  and  good  customers, 
so  he  composed  himself  in  a  lug  chair  and  dovered 
in  a  little  room  opening  off  ours ;  while  we  sat 
fingering  the  book.  Our  voices  as  we  called  the 
cartes  seemed  now  and  then  to  me  like  a  discourtesy 
to  the  peace  and  order  of  the  night. 

"  I  must  go,"  said  I  a  second  time. 

"  Another  one  game,"  cried  John  Splendid. 
He  had  been  winning  every  bout,  but  with  a  re- 
luctance that  shone   honestly  on   his   face ;   and   I 

4 


50  JOHN    SPLENDID 

knew  it  was  to  give  Tearlach  and  me  a  chance  to 
better  our  reputation  that  he  would  have  us  hang 
on. 

"  You  have  hard  luck  indeed,"  he  would  say. 
Or,  "  You  played  that  trick  as  few  could  do  it." 
Or,  "Am  not  I  in  the  key  to-night?  there's  less 
craft  than  luck  here."  And  he  played  slovenly 
even  once  or  twice,  flushing,  we  could  read,  lest 
we  could  see  the  stratagem.  At  these  times,  by 
the  curious  way  of  chance,  he  won  more  surely 
than  ever. 

"  I  must  be  going,"  I  said  again.  And  this  time 
I  put  the  cartes  bye,  firmly  determined  that  my 
usual  easy  and  pliant  mood  in  fair  company  would 
be  my  own  enemy  no  more. 

"  Another  chappin  of  ale,"  said  he.  "  Tearlach, 
get  Elrigmore  to  bide  another  bit.  Tuts,  the 
night's  but  young,  the  chap  of  two  and  a  fine 
clear  clean  air  with  a  wind  behind  you  for  Shira 
Glen." 

"  Wheest !  "  said  Tearlach  of  a  sudden,  and  he 
put  up  a  hand. 

There  was  a  skliffing  of  feet  on  the  road  outside 
—  many  feet  and  wary,  with  men's  voices  in  a 
whisper  caught  at  the  teeth — a  sound  at  that 
hour  full  of  menace.  Only  a  moment  and  then 
all  was  by. 

"There's  something  strange  here!"  said  John 
Splendid,  "let's  out  and  see."  He  put  round  his 
rapier  more  on  the  groin,  and  gave  a  jerk  at  the 
narrow  belt  creasing  his  fair-day  crimson  vest. 
For  me  I  had  only  the  dirk  to  speak  of,  for  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  51 

sgenn  dubh  at  my  waist  was  a  silver  toy,  and  Tear- 
lach,  being  a  burgh  man,  had  no  arm  at  all.  He 
lay  hold  on  an  oaken  shinty  stick  that  hung  on 
the  wall,  property  of  the  ferry-house  landlord's 
son. 

Out  we  went  in  the  direction  of  the  footsteps, 
round  Gillemor's  corner  and  the  jail,  past  the 
Fencibles'  arm-room  and  into  the  main  street  of 
the  town,  that  held  no  light  in  door  or  window. 
There  would  have  been  moon,  but  a  black  wrack 
of  clouds  filled  the  heavens.  From  the  kirk  cor- 
ner we  could  hear  a  hushed  tumult  down  at  the 
Provost's  close-mouth. 

"Pikes  and  pistols!"  cried  Splendid.  "Is  it 
not  as  I  said?  yonder 's  your  MacNicolls  for  you." 

In  a  flash  I  thought  of  Mistress  Betty  with  her 
hair  down,  roused  by  the  marauding  crew,  and  I 
ran  hurriedly  down  the  street  shouting  the  burgh's 
slogan,  "  Slochd  !  " 

"  Damn  the  man's  hurry !  "  said  John  Splendid, 
trotting  at  my  heels,  and  with  Tearlach  too  he 
gave  lungs  to  the  shout. 

"  Slochd  !  "  I  cried,  and  "  Slochd  !  "  they  cried, 
and  the  whole  town  clanged  like  a  bell.  Windows 
open  here  and  there,  and  out  popped  heads,  and 
then  — 

"  Murder  and  thieves !  "  we  cried  stoutly  again. 

"  Is't  the  Athole  dogs?  "  asked  some  one  in  bad 
English  from  a  window,  but  we  did  not  bide  to 
tell  him. 

"  Slochd  !  slochd  !  club  and  steel !  "  more  nim- 
ble burghers  cried,  jumping  out  at  closes   in  our 


52  JOHN    SPLENDID 

rear,  and  following  with  neither  hose  nor  bropjue, 
but  the  kilt  thrown  at  one  toss  on  the  haunch  and 
some  weapon  in  hand.  And  the  whole  wide  street 
was  stark  awake. 

The  MacNicolls  must  have  numbered  fully 
threescore.  They  had  only  made  a  pretence  (we 
learned  again)  of  leaving  the  town,  and  had  hung 
on  the  river-side  till  they  fancied  their  attempt  at 
seizing  MacLachlan  was  secure  from  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  town-folk.  They  were  packed  in  a 
mass  in  the  close  and  on  the  stair,  and  the  fore- 
most were  solemnly  battering  at  the  night  door  at 
the  top  of  the  first  flight  of  stairs,  crying,  "  Fuil, 
airson  fuil! — blood  for  blood,  out  with  young 
Lachie!" 

We  fell  to  on  the  rearmost  with  a  will,  first  of 
all  with  the  bare  fist,  for  half  of  this  midnight 
army  were  my  own  neighbours  in  Glen  Shira, 
peaceable  men  in  ordinary  affairs,  kirk-goers,  law- 
abiders,  though  maybe  a  little  common  in  the 
quality,  and  between  them  and  the  mustering 
burghers  there  was  no  feud.  For  a  while  we 
fought  it  dourly  in  the  darkness  with  the  fingers  at 
the  throat  or  the  fist  in  the  face,  or  wrestled 
warmly  on  the  plain-stones,  or  laid  out,  such  as 
had  staves,  with  good  vigour  on  the  bonneted 
heads.  Into  the  close  we  could  not —  soon  I  saw 
it — push  our  way,  for  the  enemy  filled  it — a 
dense  mass  of  tartan,  stinking  with  peat  and  ooz- 
ing with  the  day's  debauchery. 

"We'll  have  him  out,  if  it's  in  bits,"  they  said, 
and  aye  upon  the  stair-head  banged  the  door. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  53 

"  No  remedy  in  this  way  for  the  folks  besieged," 
thinks  I,  and  stepping  aside  I  began  to  wonder 
how  best  to  aid  our  friends  by  strategy  rather  than 
force  of  arms.  All  at  once  I  had  mind  that  at  the 
back  of  the  land  facing  the  shore  an  outhouse  with 
a  thatched  roof  ran  at  a  high  pitch  well  up  against 
the  kitchen  window,  and  I  stepped  through  a  close 
further  up  and  set,  at  this  outhouse,  to  the  climb- 
ing, leaving  my  friends  fighting  out  in  the  dark- 
ness in  a  town  tumultuous.  To  get  up  over  the 
eaves  of  the  outhouse  was  no  easy  task,  and  I 
would  have  failed  without  a  doubt  had  not  the 
stratagem  of  John  Splendid  come  to  his  aid  a  little 
later  than  my  own  and  sent  him  after  me.  He 
helped  me  first  on  the  roof,  and  I  had  him  soon 
beside  me.  The  window  lay  unguarded  (all  the 
inmates  of  the  house  being  at  the  front),  and  we 
stepped  in  and  found  ourselves  soon  in  a  house- 
hold vastly  calm  considering  the  rabble  dunting  in 
its  doors. 

"  A  pot  of  scalding  water  and  a  servant  wench 
at  that  back-window  we  came  in  by  would  be  a 
good  sneck  against  all  that  think  of  coming  after 
us,"  said  John  Splendid,  stepping  into  the  passage 
where  we  met  Mistress  Betty  the  day  before  — 
now  with  the  stairhead  door  stoutly  barred  and 
barricaded  up  with  heavy  chests  and  napery- 
aumries. 

"  God  !  I  'm  glad  to  see  you,  sir !  "  cried  the 
Provost,"  and  you,  Elrigmorc  !  "  He  came  for- 
ward in  a  trepidation  which  was  shared  by  few  of 
the  people  about  him. 


54  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Young  MacLachlan  stood  up  against  the  wall 
facing  the  barricaded  door,  a  lad  little  over  twenty, 
with  a  steel-grey  quarrelsome  eye,  and  there  was 
more  bravado  than  music  in  a  pipe-tune  he  was 
humming  in  a  low  key  to  himself.  A  little  beyond, 
at  the  door  of  the  best  room,  half  in  and  half  out, 
stood  the  good  wife  Brown  and  her  daughter.  A 
son  of  the  house,  of  about  eighteen,  with  a  brog  or 
awl  was  teasing  out  the  end  of  a  flambeau  in  prep- 
aration to  light  for  some  purpose  not  to  be  guessed 
at,  and  a  servant  lass,  pock-marked,  with  one  eye 
on  the  pot  and  the  other  up  the  lum,  as  we  say  of 
a  glee  or  cast,  made  a  storm  of  lamentation,  cry- 
ing in  Gaelic,  — 

"My  grief!  my  grief!  what's  to  come  of  poor 
P^ggy?"  (Peggy  being  herself.)  "Nothing  for 
it  but  the  wood  and  cave  and  the  ravishing  of  the 
Ben  Bhuidhe  wolves." 

Mistress  Betty  laughed  at  her  notion,  a  sign  of 
humour  and  courage  in  her  (considering  the  plight) 
that  fairly  took  me. 

"  I  daresay,  Peggy,  they  '11  let  us  be,"  she  said, 
coming  forward  to  shake  Splendid  and  me  by  the 
hand.  "  To  keep  me  in  braws  and  you  in  ashets 
to  break  would  be  more  than  the  poor  creatures 
would  face,  I  'm  thinking.  You  are  late  in  the 
town,  Elrigmore." 

"  Colin."  I  corrected  her,  and  she  bit  the  inside 
of  her  nether  lip  in  a  style  that  means  temper. 

"  It's  no  time  for  dalliance,  I  think.  I  thought 
you  had  been  up  the  glen  long  syne,  but  we  are 
glad  to  have  your  service  in  this  trouble.  Master  — 


JOHN    SPLENDID  55 

Colin "  (with  a  little  laugh  and  a  flush  at  the 
cheek),  "  also  Mr.  Campbell.  Do  you  think  they 
mean  seriously  ill  by  MacLachlan?  " 

"  111  enough,  I  have  little  doubt,"  briskly  replied 
Splendid.  "  A  corps  of  MacNicolls,  arrant  knaves 
from  all  airts,  worse  than  the  Macaulays  or  the 
Gregarach  themselves,  do  not  come  banging  at  the 
burgh  door  of  Inneraora  at  this  uncanny  hour  for 
a  child's  play.  Sir"  (he  went  on,  to  MacLachlan), 
"  I  mind  you  said  last  market-day  at  Kilmichael, 
with  no  truth  to  back  it,  that  you  could  run,  shoot, 
or  sing  any  Campbell  ever  put  on  hose ;  let  a 
Campbell  show  you  the  way  out  of  a  bees'-bike. 
Take  the  back-window  for  it,  and  out  the  way  we 
came  in.  I  '11  warrant  there  's  not  a  wise  enough 
(let  alone  a  sober  enough)  man  among  all  the  idiots 
battering  there  who  '11  think  of  watching  for  your 
retreat." 

MacLachlan,  a  most  extraordinary  vain  and 
pompous  little  fellow,  put  his  bonnet  suddenly  on 
his  head,  scrugged  it  down  vauntingly  on  one  side 
over  the  right  eye,  and  stared  at  John  Splendid 
with  a  good  deal  of  choler  or  hurt  vanity. 

"  Sir,"  said  he,  "  this  was  our  affair  till  you  put  a 
finger  into  it.  You  might  know  me  well  enough 
to  understand  that  none  of  our  breed  ever  took 
a  back  door  if  a  front  offered." 

"  Whilk  it  does  not  in  this  case,"  said  John 
Splendid,  seemingly  in  a  mood  to  humour  the  man. 
"  But  I  '11  allow  there  's  the  right  spirit  in  the  ob- 
jection—  to  begin  with  in  a  young  lad.  When  I 
was  your  age  I  had  the  same  good  Highland  notion 


56  JOHN   SPLENDID 

that  the  hardest  way  to  face  the  foe  was  the  hand- 
somest. 'Pallas  Arniata  '  (is 't  that  you  call  the 
book  of  arms,  Elrigmore?)  tells  different;  but 
'  Pallas  Armata'  (or  whatever  it  is)  is  for  old  men 
with  cool  blood." 

Of  a  sudden  MacLachlan  made  dart  at  the  chests 
and  pulled  them  back  from  the  door  with  a  most 
surprising  vigour  of  arm  before  any  one  could  pre- 
vent him.  The  Provost  vainly  tried  to  make  him 
desist;  John  Splendid  said  in  English,  "  He  that 
maun  to  Cupar  maun  to  Cupar,"  and  in  a  jiffy 
the  last  of  the  barricade  was  down,  but  the  door 
was  still  on  two  wooden  bars  slipping  into  stout 
staples.  Betty  in  a  low  whisper  asked  me  to  save 
the  poor  fellow  from  his  own  hot  temper. 

At  the  minute  I  grudged  him  the  lady's  con- 
sideration—  too  warm,  I  thought,  even  in  a  far- 
out  relative,  but  a  look  at  her  face  showed  she  was 
only  in  the  alarm  of  a  woman  at  the  thought  of 
any  one's  danger. 

I  caught  MacLachlan  by  the  sleeve  of  his  shirt 
—  he  had  on  but  that  and  a  kilt  and  vest  —  and 
jerked  him  back  from  his  fool's  employment;  but 
I  was  a  shave  late.  He  ran  back  both  wooden 
bars  before  I  let  him. 

With  a  roar  and  a  display  of  teeth  and  steel  the 
MacNicolls  came  into  the  lobby  from  the  crowded 
stair,  and  we  were  driven  to  the  far  parlour  end. 
In  the  forefront  of  them  was  Nicol  Beg  MacNicoll, 
the  nearest  kinsman  of  the  murdered  Braleckan  lad. 
He  had  a  targe  on  his  left  arm  —  a  round  buckler 
of  daracJi  or  oak-wood  covered  with  dun  cow-hide, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  57 

hair  out,  and  studded  in  a  pleasing  pattern  with 
iron  bosses — a  prong  several  inches  long  in  the 
middle  of  it.  Like  every  other  scamp  in  the  pack, 
he  had  dirk  out.  Beg  or  little  he  was  in  the 
countryside's  byename,  but  in  truth  he  was  a  fel- 
low of  six  feet,  as  hairy  as  a  brock  and  in  the  same 
straight  bristly  fashion.  He  put  out  his  arms  at 
full  reach  to  keep  back  his  clansmen,  who  were 
stretching  necks  at  poor  MacLachlan  like  weasels, 
him  with  his  nostrils  swelling  and  his  teeth  biting 
his  bad  temper. 

"Wait  a  bit,  lads,"  said  Nicol  Beg;  "perhaps 
we  may  get  our  friend  here  to  come  peaceably 
with  us.  I'm  sorry"  (he  went  on,  addressing  the 
Provost)  "  to  put  an  honest  house  to  rabble  at 
any  time,  and  the  Provost  of  Inneraora  specially, 
for  I  'm  sure  there  's  kin's  blood  by  my  mother's 
side  between  us ;  but  there  was  no  other  way  to 
get  MacLachlan  once  his  tail  was  gone." 

"  You  '11  rue  this,  MacNicoll,"  fumed  the  Provost 
—  as  red  as  a  bubblyjock  at  the  face  —  mopping 
with  a  napkin  at  his  neck  in  a  sweat  of  annoy- 
ance; "  you  '11  rue  it,  rue  it,  rue  it!  "  and  he  went 
into  a  coil  of  lawyer's  threats  against  the  invaders, 
talking  of  brandcr-irons  and  gallows,  hamesucken 
and  housebreaking. 

We  were  a  daft-like  lot  in  that  long  lobby  in  a 
wan  candle-light.  Over  mc  came  that  wonder- 
ment that  falls  on  one  upon  stormy  occasions  (I 
mind  it  at  the  sally  of  Lecheim),  when  the  whirl 
of  life  seems  to  come  to  a  sudden  stop,  all  's  but 
wooden    dummies   and   a  scene  empty  of  atmos- 


58  JOHN    SPLENDID 

pliere,  and  between  your  hand  on  the  basket- 
hilt  and  the  drawing  of  the  sword  is  a  hfctinie. 
We  could  hear  at  the  close- mouth  and  far  up  and 
down  the  street  the  shouting  of  the  burghers,  and 
knew  that  at  the  stair-foot  they  were  trying  to  pull 
out  the  bottom-most  of  the  marauders  like  tods 
from  a  hole.  For  a  second  or  two  nobody  said 
a  word  to  Nicol  MacNicoU's  remark,  for  he  put 
the  issue  so  cool  (like  an  invitation  to  saunter 
along  the  road)  that  all  at  once  it  seemed  a  matter 
between  him  and  MacLachlan  alone.  I  stood 
between  the  house-breakers  and  the  women-folk 
beside  me  —  John  Splendid  looking  wonderfully 
ugly  for  a  man  fairly  clean  fashioned  at  the  face 
by  nature.  We  left  the  issue  to  MacLachlan,  and 
I  must  say  he  came  up  to  the  demands  of  the 
moment  with  gentlcmanliness,  minding  he  was  in 
another's  house  than  his  own. 

"What  is  it  ye  want?"  he  asked  MacNicoll, 
burring  out  his  Gaelic  r's  with  punctilio. 

"  We  want  you  in  room  of  a  murderer  your 
father  owes  us,"  said  MacNicoll. 

"You  would  slaughter  me,  then?"  said  Mac- 
Lachlan, amazingly  undisturbed,  but  bringing  again 
to  the  front,  by  a  motion  of  the  haunch  accidental 
to  look  at,  the  sword  he  leaned  on. 

"  Full  airson  fuil !  "  cried  the  rabble  on  the 
stairs,  and  it  seemed  ghastly  like  an  answer  to  the 
young  laird's  question ;  but  Nicol  Beg  demanded 
peace,  and  assured  MacLachlan  he  was  only 
sought  for  a  hostage. 

"  We    but    want   your    red-handed   friend   Dark 


JOHN    SPLENDID  59 

Neil,"  said  he ;  "  your  father  kens  his  lair,  and  the 
hour  he  puts  him  in  our  hands  for  justice,  you  '11 
have  freedom." 

"  Do  you  warrant  me  free  of  scaith  ?  "  asked  the 
young  laird. 

"  I  '11  warrant  not  a  hair  of  your  head  's  touched," 
answered  Nicol  Beg;  no  very  sound  warranty  I 
thought  from  a  man  who,  as  he  gave  it,  had  to 
put  his  weight  back  on  the  eager  crew  that  pushed 
at  his  shoulders,  ready  to  spring  like  weasels  at 
the  throat  of  the  gentleman  in  the  red  tartan. 

He  was  young,  MacLachlan,  as  I  said;  for  him 
this  was  a  delicate  situation,  and  we  about  him 
were  in  no  less  a  quandary  than  himself.  If  he 
defied  the  Glen  Shira  men,  he  brought  bloodshed 
on  a  peaceable  house,  and  ran  the  same  risk  of 
bodily  harm  that  lay  in  the  alternative  of  his  going 
with  them  that  wanted  him. 

Round  he  turned  and  looked  for  guidance, — 
broken  just  a  little  at  the  pride,  you  could  see  by 
the  lower  lip.  The  Provost  was  the  first  to  meet 
him  eye  for  eye. 

"  I  have  no  opinion,  Lachie,"  said  the  old  man, 
snuffing  rapce  with  the  butt  of  an  egg-spoon  and 
spilling  the  brown  dust  in  sheer  nervousness  over 
the  night-shirt  bulging  above  the  band  of  his 
breeks.  "  I  'm  wae  to  see  your  father's  son  in  such 
a  corner,  and  all  my  comfort  is  that  every  tenant 
in  Elrig  and  Braleckan  pays  for  this  night's  frolic 
at  the  Tolbooth  or  gallows  of  Inncraora  town." 

"A  great  consolation  to  think  of,"  said  John 
Splendid. 


6o  JOHN   SPLENDID 

The  goodwife,  a  nervous  body  at  her  best, 
sobbed  away  with  her  pock-marked  hussy  in  the 
parlour,  but  Bett}'  was  to  the  fore  in  a  passion  of 
vexation.     To  her  the  lad   made  next  his  appeal. 

"Should  I  go?"  he  asked ;  and  I  thought  he 
said  it  more  like  one  who  almost  craved  to  stay. 
I  never  saw  a  woman  in  such  a  coil.  She  looked 
at  the  dark  MacNicolls,  and  syne  she  looked  at 
the  fair-haired  )-oung  fellow,  and  her  eyes  were 
swimming,  her  bosom  heaving  imder  her  screen  of 
Campbell  tartan,  her  fingers  twisting  at  the  pleated 
hair  that  fell  in  sheeny  cables  to  her  waist. 

"If  I  were  a  man  I  would   stay,  and  yet  —  if 

you  stay Oh,  poor  Lachlan  !     I  'm  no  judge," 

she  cried ;  "  my  cousin,  my  dear  cousin !  "  and 
over  brimmed  her  tears. 

All  this  took  less  time  to  happen  than  it  takes 
to  tell  with  pen  and  ink,  and  though  there  may 
seem  in  reading  it  to  be  too  much  palaver  on  this 
stair-head,  it  was  but  a  minute  or  two,  after  the 
bar  was  off  the  door,  that  John  Splendid  took  me 
by  the  coat-lapel  and  back  a  bit  to  whisper  in  my 
car,  — 

"  If  he  goes  quietly  or  goes  gaffed  like  a  grilse, 
it's  all  one  on  the  street.  Out-bye  the  place  is 
botching  with  the  town-people.  Do  you  think  the 
MacNicolls  could  take  a  prisoner  by  the  Cross  ?  " 

"It'll  be  cracked  crowns  on  the  causcwa)-," 
said   I. 

"  Cracked  crowns  any  way  }'ou  take  it,"  said  he, 
"  and  better  on  the  causeway  than  on  Madame 
Brown's  parlour  floor.     It's  a  gentleman's  policy, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  6i 

I  would  think,  to  have  the  squabble  in  the  open 
air,  and  save  the  women  the  likely  sight  of  bloody- 
gashes." 

"  What  do  you  think,  Elrigmore?"  Betty  cried 
to  me  the  next  moment,  and  I  said  it  were  better 
the  gentleman  should  go.  The  reason  seemed  to 
flash  on  her  there  and  then,  and  she  backed  m\' 
counsel ;  but  the  lad  was  not  the  shrewdest  I  've 
seen,  even  for  a  Cowal  man,  and  he  seemed  vexed 
that  she  should  seek  to  get  rid  of  him,  glancing 
at  me  with  a  scornful  eye  as  if  I  were  to  blame. 

"Just  so,"  he  said,  a  little  bitterly;  "  the  advice 
is  well  meant,"  and  on  went  his  jacket  that  had 
hung  on  a  peg  behind  him,  and  his  bonnet  played 
scrug  on  his  forehead.  A  wiry  young  scamp, 
spirited  too  !  He  was  putting  his  sword  into  its 
scabbard,  but  MacNicoU  stopped  him,  and  he 
went  without  it. 

Now  it  was  not  the  first  time  "  Slochd  a  Chu- 
bair"  was  cried  as  slogan  in  Baile  Inneraora  in  the 
memory  of  the  youngest  lad  out  that  early  morning 
with  a  cudgel.  The  burgh  settled  to  its  Lowland- 
ishness  with  something  of  a  grudge.  For  long  the 
landward  clans  looked  upon  the  incomers  to  it  as 
foreign  and  unfriendly.  More  than  once  in  fierce 
or  drunken  escapades  they  came  into  the  place  in 
their  mogans  at  night,  quiet  as  ghosts,  mischievous 
as  the  winds,  and  set  fire  to  wooden  booths,  or 
shot  in  wantonness  at  any  mischancy  unkilted  cit- 
izen late  returning  from  the  change-house.  The 
tartan  was  at  those  times  the  only  passport  to 
their  good  favour;   to  them  the  black  cloth  knee- 


62  JOHN   SPLENDID 

breeches  were  red  rags  to  a  bull,  and  ill-luck  to 
the  lad  that  wore  the  same  anywhere  outside  the 
Crooked  Dyke  that  marks  the  town  and  policies 
of  his  lordship.  If  he  fared  no  worse,  he  came 
home  with  his  coat-skirts  scantily  filling  an  office 
unusual.  JNIany  a  time  "  Slochd  !  "  rang  through 
the  night  on  the  Athole  winter  when  I  dosed  far 
off  on  the  fields  of  Low  Germanic,  or  sweated  in 
sallies  from  leaguered  towns.  And  experience 
made  the  burghers  mighty  tactical  on  such  occa- 
sions. Old  Leslie  or  "  Pallas  Armata  "  itself  con- 
ferred no  better  notion  of  strategic  sally  than  the 
simple  one  they  used  when  the  MacNicolls  came 
down  the  stair  with  their  prisoner;  for  they  had 
dispersed  themselves  in  little  companies  up  the 
closes  on  either  side  the  street,  and  past  the  close 
the  invaders  bound  to  go. 

They  might  have  known,  the  MacNicolls,  that 
mischief  was  forward  in  that  black  silence,  but 
they  were,  like  all  Glen  men,  unacquaint  with  the 
quirks  of  urban  war.  For  them  the  fight  in  car- 
nest  was  only  fair  that  was  fought  on  the  heather 
and  the  brae ;  and  that  was  always  my  shame  of 
my  countrymen,  that  a  half  company  of  hagbuti- 
ers,  with  wall  cover  to  depend  on,  could  worst 
the  most  chivalrous  clan  that  ever  carried  triumph 
at  a  rush. 

For  the  middle  of  the  street  the  invaders  made 
at  once,  half  ready  for  attack  from  before  or  be- 
hind, but  ill  prepared  to  meet  it  from  all  airts  as 
attack  came.  They  were  not  ten  yards  on  their 
way  when  Splendid  and  I,  emerging  behind  them, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  63 

found  them  pricked  in  the  rear  by  one  company, 
brought  up  short  by  another  in  front  at  Askaig's 
land,  and  harassed  on  the  flanks  by  the  lads  from 
the  closes.     They  were  caught  in  a  ring. 

Lowland  and  Highland,  they  roared  lustily  as 
they  came  to  blows,  and  the  street  boiled  like  a 
pot  of  herring;  in  the  heart  of  the  commotion 
young  MacLachlan  tossed  hither  and  yond  —  a 
stick  in  a  linn.  A  half-score  more  of  MacNicolls 
might  have  made  all  the  difference  in  the  end  of 
the  story,  for  they  struck  desperately ;  better  men 
by  far  as  weight  and  agility  went  than  the  burgh 
half-breds,  but  (to  their  credit)  so  unwilling  to 
shed  blood,  that  they  used  the  flat  of  the  clay- 
more instead  of  the  wedge. 

Young  Brown  flung  up  a  window  and  lit  the 
street  with  the  flare  of  the  flambeau  he  had  been 
teasing  out  so  earnestly,  and  dunt,  dunt  went  the 
oaken  rungs  on  the  bonnets  of  Glen  Shira,  till 
Glen  Shira  smelt  defeat  and  fell  slowly  back. 

In  all  this  horoyally  I  took  but  an  onlooker's 
part.  MacLachlan's  quarrel  was  not  mine,  the 
burgh  was  none  of  my  blood,  and  the  Glen  Shira 
men  were  my  father's  friends  and  neighbours. 
Splendid,  too,  cannily  kept  out  of  the  turmoil 
when  he  saw  that  young  MacLachlan  was  safely 
free  of  his  warders,  and  that  what  had  been  a 
cause  militant  was  now  only  a  Highland  diversion. 

"  Let  them  play  away  at  it,"  he  said  ;  "  I  'm  not 
keen  to  have  wounds  in  a  burgher's  brawl  in  my 
own  town  when  there  's  promise  of  braver  sport 
over  the  hills  amone  other  tartans" 


64  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Up  the  town  drifted  the  little  battle,  no  dead 
left  as  luck  had  it,  but  many  a  gout  of  blood. 
The  white  gables  clanged  back  the  cries,  in  claps 
like  summer  thunder,  the  crows  in  the  beech-trees 
complained  in  a  rasping  roupy  chorus,  and  the 
house-doors  banged  at  the  back  of  men,  who, 
weary  or  wounded,  sought  home  to  bed.  And 
Splendid  and  I  were  on  the  point  of  parting,  secure 
that  the  young  laird  of  MacLachlan  was  at  liberty, 
when  that  gentleman  himself  came  scouring  along, 
hard  pressed  by  a  couple  of  MacNicolls  ready  with 
brands  out  to  cut  him  down.  He  was  without 
steel  or  stick,  stumbling  on  the  causeway-stones 
in  a  stupor  of  weariness,  his  mouth  gasping  and 
his  coat  torn  wellnigh  off  the  back  of  him.  He 
was  never  in  his  twenty  years  of  life  nearer  death 
than  then,  and  he  knew  it;  but  when  he  found 
John  Splendid  and  me  before  him  he  stopped  and 
turned  to  face  the  pair  that  followed  him  —  a  fool's 
vanity  to  show  fright  had  not  put  the  heels  to  his 
hurry !  We  ran  out  beside  him,  and  the  Mac- 
Nicolls refused  the  rencontre,  left  their  quarry  and 
fled  again  to  the  town-head,  where  their  friends 
were  in  a  dusk  young  Brown's  flambeau  failed  to 
mitigate. 

"  I  '11  never  deny  after  this  that  you  can't  outrun 
me !  "  said  John  Splendid,  putting  by  his  small 
sword. 

"  I  would  have  given  them  their  kail  through 
the  reek  in  a  double  dose  if  I  had  only  a  simple 
khife,"  said  the  lad  angrily,  looking  up  the  street, 
where  the  fighting  was  now  over.    Then  he  whipped 


JOHN   SPLENDID  6$ 

into  Brown's  close  and  up  the  stair,  leaving  us  at 
the  gable  of  Askaig's  house. 

John  Splendid,  ganting  sleepily,  pointed  at  the 
fellow's  disappearing  skirts.  "  Do  you  see  yon?  " 
said  he,  and  he  broke  into  a  line  of  a  Gaelic  air 
that  told  his  meaning. 

"Lovers?  "  I  asked. 

"What  do  you  think  yourself.-*  "  said  he. 

"  She  is  mighty  put  about  at  his  hazard,"  I  con- 
fessed, reflecting  on  her  tears. 

"  Cousins,  ye  ken,  cousins !  "  said  Splendid,  and 
he  put  a  finger  in  my  side,  laughing  meaningly. 

I  got  home  when  the  day.  stirred  among  the 
mists  over  Strone. 


66  JOHN   SPLENDID 

CHAPTER   V 

KIRK    LAW 

Of  course  Clan  MacNicoll  was  brought  to  book 
for  this  froHc  on  Inneraora  fair-day,  banned  by 
Kirk,  and  soundly  beaten  by  the  Doomster  in 
name  of  law.  To  read  some  books  I  've  read,  one 
would  think  our  Gaels  in  the  time  I  speak  of,  and 
even  now,  were,  and  are,  pagan  and  savage.  We 
are  not,  I  admit  it,  fashioned  on  the  prim  style  of 
London  dandies  and  Italian  fops ;  we  are  —  the 
poorest  of  us — coarse  a  little  at  the  hide,  too 
quick,  perhaps,  to  slash  out  with  knife  or  hatchet, 
and  over-ready  to  carry  the  most  innocent  argu- 
ment the  dire  length  of  a  thrust  with  the  sword. 
That 's  the  blood  ;  it 's  the  common  understanding 
among  ourselves.  But  we  were  never  such  thieves 
and  maurauders,  caterans  bloody  and  unashamed, 
as  the  Galloway  kerns  and  the  Northmen,  and  in 
all  my  time  we  had  plenty  to  do  to  fend  our  straths 
against  reivers  and  cattle-drovers  from  the  bad 
clans  round  about  us.  We  lift  no  cattle  in  all 
Campbell  country.  When  I  was  a  lad  some  of  the 
old-fashioned  tenants  in  Glenaora  once  or  twice 
went  over  to  Glen  Nant  and  Rannoch  and  bor- 
rowed a  few  beasts;  but  the  Earl  (as  he  was  then) 
gave  them  warning  for  it  that  any  vassal  of  his 
found  guilty  of  such  practice  again  should  hang 
at  the  town-head   as   ready  as  he  would    hang  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  67 

Cowal  man  for  theftuously  awaytaking  a  board  of 
kipper  salmon.  My  father  (peace  with  him!) 
never  could  see  the  logic  of  it.  "  It  's  no  theft," 
he  would  urge,  "but  war  on  the  parish  scale;  it 
needs  coolness  of  the  head,  some  valour,  and  great 
genius  to  take  fifty  or  maybe  a  hundred  head  of 
bestial  hot-hoof  over  hill  and  moor.  I  would  never 
blame  a  man  for  lifting  a  spreadh  of  black  cattle 
any  more  than  for  killing  a  deer;  are  not  both  the 
fcrcB  natune  of  these  mountains,  prey  lawful  to  the 
first  lad  who  can  tether  or  paunch  them?  " 

"  Not  in  the  fold,  father,"  I  mind  of  remonstrat- 
ing once. 

"  In  the  fold  too,"  he  said.  "  Who  respects 
Bredalbane's  fenced  deer?  not  the  most  Christian 
elders  in  Glenurchy;  they  say  grace  over  venison 
that  crossed  a  high  dyke  in  the  dead  of  night  tail 
first,  or  game  birds  that  tumbled  out  of  their  dream 
on  the  bough  into  the  reek  of  a  brimstone  fire.  A 
man  might  as  well  claim  the  fish  of  the  sea  and  the 
switch  of  the  wood,  and  refuse  the  rest  of  the  world 
a  herring  or  a  block  of  wood,  as  put  black  cattle 
in  a  fank  and  complain  because  he  had  to  keep 
watch  on  them  !  " 

It  was  quaint  law,  but  I  must  admit  my  father 
made  the  practice  run  with  the  precept,  for  more 
than  once  he  refused  to  take  back  cattle  lifted  by 
the  Macgregors  from  us,  because  they  had  got 
over  his  march-stone. 

But  so  far  from  permitting  this  latitude  in  the 
parish  of  Inneraora,  Kirk  and  State  frowned  it 
down,  and  sins  far  less  heinous.     The  session  was 


68  JOHN    SPLENDID 

bitterly  keen  on  Sabbath-breakers,  and  to  start  on 
a  Saturday  night  a  kihi-drying  of  oats  that  would, 
claim  a  peat  or  two  on  Sabbath,  was  accounted 
immorality  of  the  most  gross  kind. 

Much  of  this  strict  form,  it  is  to  be  owned,  was 
imported  by  the  Lowland  burghers,  and  set  up  by 
the  Lowland  session  of  the  English  kirk,  of  which 
his  lordship  was  an  elder,  and  the  Highlanders 
took  to  it  badly  for  many  a  day.  They  were  aye, 
for  a  time,  driving  their  cattle  through  the  town  on 
the  Lord's  day  or  stravaiging  about  the  roads  and 
woods,  or  drinking  and  listening  to  pipers  piping 
in  the  change-houses  at  time  of  sermon,  fond,  as 
all  our  people  are  by  nature,  of  the  hearty  open 
air,  and  the  smell  of  woods,  and  lusty  soimds  like 
the  swing  of  the  seas  and  pipers  playing  old 
tunes.  Out  would  come  elders  and  deacons  to 
scour  the  streets  and  change-houses  for  them, 
driving  them,  as  if  with  scourges,  into  worship. 
Gaelic  sermon  (or  Irish  sermon,  as  the  Scots 
called  it)  was  but  every  second  Sabbath,  and  on 
the  blank  days  the  landward  Highlanders  found 
in  town  bound  to  go  to  English  sermon  whether 
they  knew  the  language  or  not,  a  form  which 
it  would  be  difficult  nowadays  to  defend.  And  it 
was,  in  a  way,  laughable  to  see  the  big  Gaels 
driven  to  chapel  like  boys  by  the  smug  light 
burghers  they  could  have  crushed  with  a  hand. 
But  time  told ;  there  was  sown  in  the  landward 
mind  by  the  blessing  of  God  (and  some  fear  of  the 
Marquis,  no  doubt)  a  respect  for  Christian  ordi- 
nance, and  by  the  time  I  write  of,  there  were  no 
more  devout  churchgoers  and  respecters  of  the  law 


JOHN   SPLENDID  69 

ecclesiastic  than  the  umquhile  pagan  small-clans  of 
Loch  Finne  and  the  Glens. 

It  is  true  that  Nicol  Beg  threatened  the  church- 
officer  with  his  dirk  when  he  came  to  cite  him 
before  the  session  a  few  days  after  the  splore  in 
Inneraora,  but  he  stood  his  trial  like  a  good 
Christian  all  the  same,  he  and  half  a  score  of  his 
clan,  as  many  as  the  church  court  could  get  the 
names  of.  I  was  a  witness  against  them,  much 
against  my  will,  with  John  Splendid,  the  Provost, 
and  some  other  townsfolk. 

Some  other  defaulters  were  dealt  with  before  the 
MacNicolls,  a  few  throughither  women  and  lads 
from  the  back-lanes  of  the  burghs,  on  the  old  tale, 
a  shoreside  man  for  houghing  a  quay,  and  a  girl 
MacVicar,  who  had  been  for  a  season  on  a  visit 
to  some  Catholic  relatives  in  the  Isles,  and  was 
charged  with  malignancy  and  profanity. 

Poor  lass !  I  was  wae  for  her.  She  stood 
bravely  beside  her  father,  whose  face  was  as  be- 
grutten  as  hers  was  serene,  and  those  who  put  her 
through  her  catechism  found  to  my  mind  but  a 
good  heart  and  tolerance  where  they  sought 
treachery  and  rank  heresy.  They  convicted  her 
notwithstanding. 

"You  have  stood  your  trials  badly,  Jean  Mac- 
Vicar,"  said  Master  Gordon.  "  A  backslider  and 
malignant  provan !  You  may  fancy  your  open 
profession  of  piety,  your  honesty  and  charity, 
make  dykes  to  the  narrow  way.  A  fond  delusion, 
woman !  There  are,  sorrow  on  it !  many  lax 
people  of  your  kind  in  Scotland  this  day,  hangers- 


^o  JOHN    SPLENDID 

on  at  the  petticoat  tails  of  the  whore  of  Babylon, 
sitting  like  yon,  as  honest  worshippers  at  the 
tables  of  the  Lord,  eating  Christian  elements  that 
but  for  His  mercy  choked  them  at  the  thrapple. 
You  are  a  wicked  woman  !  " 

"  She  's  a  good  daughter,"  broke  in  the  father 
through  his  tears ;  but  his  Gaelic  never  stopped 
the  minister.- 

"  An  ignorant  besom." 

"  She  's  leech-wife  to  half  Kenmore,"  protested 
the  old  man. 

"  And  this  court  censures  you,  ordains  you  to 
make  public  confession  at  both  English  and  Gaelic 
kirks  before  the  congregations,  thereafter  to  be 
excommunicate  and  banished  furth  and  from  this 
parish  of  hineraora  and  Glcnaora." 

The  girl  never  winced. 

Her  father  cried  again,  "  She  can't  leave  me," 
said  he,  and  he  looked  to  the  Marquis,  who  all  the 
time  sat  on  the  hard  deal  forms,  like  a  plain  man. 
*'  Your  lordship  kens  she  is  motherless  and  my 
only  kin;   that's  she  true  and  honest." 

The  Marquis  said  yea  nor  nay,  but  had  a  min- 
ute's talk  with  the  clergyman,  as  I  thought  at  the 
time,  to  make  him  modify  his  ruling.  But  Master 
Gordon  enforced  the  finding  of  the  session. 

"  Go  she  must,"  said  he;  "we  cannot  have  our 
young  people  poisoned  at  the  mind." 

"  Then  she  '11  bide  with  me,"  said  the  father 
angrily. 

"  You  dare  not,  as  a  Christian  professor,  keep 
an  excommunicate  in  your  house,"  said  Gordon; 


JOHN   SPLENDID  71 

"  but  taking  to  consideration  that  excommunica- 
tion precludes  not  any  company  of  natural  rela- 
tions, we  ordain  you  never  to  keep  her  in  your 
house  in  this  parish  any  more ;  but  if  you  have 
a  mind  to  do  so  with  her,  to  follow  her  wherever 
she  goes." 

And  that  sorry  small  family  went  out  at  the 
door,  hi  tears. 

Some  curious  trials  followed,  and  the  making  of 
quaint  bylaws;  for  now  that  his  lordship,  ever  a 
restraining  influence  on  his  clans,  was  bound  for 
new  wars  elsewhere,  a  firmer  hand  was  wanted 
on  the  people  he  left  behind,  and  Master  Gordon 
pressed  for  stricter  canons.  Notification  was  made 
discharging  the  people  of  the  burgh  from  holding 
lyke-wakes  in  the  smaller  houses,  from  unneces- 
sary travel  on  the  Sabbath,  from  public  flyting  and 
abusing,  and  from  harbouring  ne'er-do-weels  from 
other  parishes,  and  seeing  it  had  become  a  prac- 
tice of  the  women  attending  kirk  to  keep  their 
plaids  upon  their  heads  and  faces  in  time  of  ser- 
mon as  occasion  of  sleeping,  as  also  that  they  who 
slept  could  not  be  distinguished  from  those  who 
slept  not,  that  they  might  be  wakened,  it  was  or- 
dained that  such  be  not  allowed  hereafter,  under 
pain  of  taking  the  plaids  from  them. 

With  these  enactments  too  came  evidence  of 
the  Kirk's  paternity.  It  settled  the  salary  (200  lb. 
Scots)  of  a  new  master  for  the  grammar-school, 
agreed  to  pay  the  fees  of  divers  poor  scholars, 
instructed  the  administering  of  the  funds  in  the 
poor's-box,  fixed  a  levy  on  the  town  for  the  follow- 


72  JOHN   SPLENDID 

ing  week  to  help  the  poorer  wives  who  would  be 
left  by  their  fencible  husbands,  and  paid  ten  marks 
to  an  elderly  widow  woman  who  desired,  like  a 
good  Gael,  to  have  her  burial  clothes  ready,  but 
had  not  the  wherewithal  for  linen. 

"  We  are,"  said  Master  Gordon,  sharpening  a 
pen  in  a  pause  ere  the  MacNicolls  came  forward, 
"  the  fathers  and  guardians  of  this  parish  'people 
high  and  low.  Too  long  has  Loch  Finneside  been 
ruled  childishly.  I  have  no  complaint  about  its 
civil  rule — his  lordship  here  might  well  be  trusted 
to  that;  but  its  religion  was  a  thing  of  rags.  They 
tell  me  old  Campbell  in  the  Gaelic  end  of  the 
church  (peace  with  him  !)  used  to  come  to  the 
pulpit  with  a  broadsword  belted  below  his  Geneva 
gown.  Savagery,  savagery,  rank  and  stinking  !  I  '11 
say  it  to  his  face  in  another  world,  and  a  poor 
evangel  and  ensample  truly  for  the  quarrelsome 
landward  folk  of  this  parish,  that  even  now,  in  the 
more  unctuous  times  of  God's  grace,  doff  steel 
weapons  so  reluctantly.  I  found  a  man  with  a 
dirk  at  his  hip  sitting  before  the  Lord's  table  last 
Lammas ! " 

"  Please  God,"  said  the  Marquis,  '*  the  world 
shall  come  to  its  sight  some  day.  My  people  are 
of  an  unruly  race,  I  ken;  good  at  the  heart,  hos- 
pitable, valorous,  even  with  some  Latin  chivalry; 
but,  my  sorrow!  they  are  sorely  unamenable  to 
policies  of  order  and  peace." 

*'  Deil  the  hair  vexed  am  I,"  said  John  Splendid 
in  my  car;  "I  have  a  wonderful  love  for  nature 
that's    raw    and    human,    and    this    session-made 


JOHN   SPLENDID  73 

morality  is  but  a  gloss.  They'll  be  taking  the 
tartan  off  us  next  maybe!  Some  day  the  old  dog 
at  the  heart  of  the  Highlands  will  bark  for  all  his 
sleek  coat.  Man !  I  hate  the  very  look  of  those 
Lowland  cattle  sitting  here  making  kirk  laws  for 
their  emperors,  and  their  bad-bred  Scots  speech 
jars  on  my  ear  like  an  ill-tuned  bagpipe." 

Master  Gordon  possibly  guessed  what  was  the 
topic  of  Splendid's  confidence,  in  truth  few  but 
knew  my  hero's  mind  on  these  matters,  and  I  have 
little  doubt  it  was  for  John's  edification  he  went  on 
to  sermonise,  still  at  the  shaping  of  his  pen. 

"  Your  lordship  will  have  the  civil  chastisement 
of  these  MacNicoUs  after  this  session  is  bye  with 
them.  We  can  but  deal  with  their  spiritual  error. 
Nicol  Beg  and  his  relatives  are  on  our  kirk  rolls  as 
members  or  adherents,  and  all  we  can  do  is  to  fence 
the  communion-table  against  them  for  a  period, 
and  bring  them  to  the  stool  of  repentance.  Some 
here  may  think  a  night  of  squabbling  and  broken 
heads  in  a  Highland  burgh  too  trifling  an  affair  for 
the  interference  of  the  kirk  or  the  court  of  law;  I 
am  under  no  such  delusion.  There  is  a  valour 
better  than  the  valour  of  the  beast  unreasoning. 
Your  lordship  has  seen  it  at  its  proper  place  in 
your  younger  wars ;  young  Elrigmore,  I  am  sure, 
has  seen  it  on  the  Continent,  where  men  live  quiet 
burgh  lives  while  left  alone,  and  yet  comport  them- 
selves chivalrously  and  gallantly  on  the  stricken 
fields  when  their  country  or  a  cause  calls  for  them 
so  to  do.  In  the  heart  of  man  is  hell  smouldering, 
always  ready  to  leap  out  in  flames  of  sharpened 


74  JOHN   SPLENDID 

steel ;  it 's  a  poor  philosophy  that  puffs  folly  in  at 
the  ear  to  stir  the  ember,  saying,  '  Hiss,  catch  him, 
dog!  '  I  'm  for  keeping  hell  (even  in  a  wild  High- 
landman's  heart)  for  its  own  business  of  punishing 
the  wicked." 

"  Amen  to  you  !  "  cried  MacCailein,  beating  his 
hand  on  a  book-board,  and  Master  Gordon  took  a 
snuff  Hke  a  man  whose  doctrine  is  laid  out  plain 
for  the  world  and  who  dare  dispute  it.  In  came 
the  beadle  with  the  MacNicolls,  very  much  cowed, 
different  men  truly  from  the  brave  gentlemen  who 
cried  blood  for  blood  on  Provost  Brown's  stair. 

They  had  little  to  deny,  and  our  evidence  was 
but  a  word  ere  the  session  passed  sentence  of  sus- 
pension from  the  kirk  tables,  as  Gordon  had  said, 
and  a  sheriff's  officer  came  to  hale  them  to  the 
Tolbooth  for  their  trial  on  behalf  of  the  civil  law. 

With  their  appearance  there  my  tale  has  nothing 
to  do ;  the  Doomster,  as  I  have  said,  had  the  hand- 
ling of  them  with  birch.  What  I  have  described 
of  this  kirk-session's  cognisance  of  those  rough 
fellows'  ill  behaviour  is  designed  ingeniously  to 
convey  a  notion  of  its  strict  ceremony  and  its  wide 
dominion ;  to  show  that  even  in  the  heart  of  Ar- 
raghael  we  were  not  beasts  in  that  year  when  the 
red  flash  of  the  sword  came  on  us  and  the  perse- 
cution of  the  torch.  The  MacNicolls  night  in  the 
Hie  Street  of  MacCailein  Mor's  town  was  an  ad- 
venture uncommon  enough  to  be  spoken  of  for 
years  aftef,  and  otherwise  (except  for  the  little 
feuds  between  the  Glensmcn  and  the  burghers 
without  tartan),  our  country-side  was  as  safe  as  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  75 

heart  of  France  —  safer  even.  You  might  leave 
your  purse  on  the  open  road  anywhere  within  the 
Crooked  Dyke  with  uncounted  gold  in  it  and  be 
no  penny  the  poorer  at  the  week's  end ;  there  was 
never  lock  or  bar  on  any  door  in  any  of  the  two 
glens  —  locks,  indeed,  were  a  contrivance  the  Low- 
landers  brought  for  the  first  time  to  the  town;  and 
the  gardens  lay  open  to  all  who  had  appetite  for 
kail  or  berry.  There  was  no  man  who  sat  down 
to  dinner  (aye  in  the  landward  part  I  speak  of;  it 
differed  in  the  town)  without  first  going  to  the 
door  to  look  along  the  highroad  to  see  if  wayfarers 
were  there  to  share  the  meal  with  him  and  his 
family,  "  There  he  goes,"  was  the  saying  about 
any  one  who  passed  the  door  at  any  time  without 
coming  in  to  take  a  spoon  —  "  there  he  goes ;  I  '11 
warrant  he  's  a  miser  at  home  to  be  so  much  of  a 
churl  abroad."  The  very  gipsy  claimed  the  clean- 
est bed  in  a  Glenman's  house  whenever  he  came 
that  way,  and  his  gossip  paid  handsomely  for  his 
shelter. 

It  was  a  fine  fat  land  this  of  ours,  mile  upon  mile 
thick  with  herds,  rolling  in  the  grassy  season  like 
the  seas,  growing  such  lush  crops  as  the  remoter 
Highlands  never  dreamt  of.  Not  a  foot  of  good 
soil  but  had  its  ploughing,  or  at  least  gave  food  to 
some  useful  animal,  and  yet  so  rocky  the  hills 
between  us  and  lower  Lochow,  so  tremendous 
steep  and  inaccessible  the  peaks  and  corries  north 
of  Ben  Bhuidhe  that  they  were  relegated  to  the 
chase.  There  had  the  stag  his  lodging  and  the 
huntsman  a  home  almost  perpetual.     It  was  cosy, 


^6  JOHN    SPLENDID 

indeed,  to  sec  of  an  evening  the  peat-smoke  from 
well-governed  and  comfortable  hearths  lingering 
on  the  quiet  air;  to  go  where  you  would  and  find 
bairns  toddling  on  the  braes  or  singing  women 
bent  to  the  peat-creel  and  the  reaping-hook. 

In  that  autumn  I  think  nature  gave  us  her  big- 
gest cup  brimmingl}',  and  m}'  father,  as  he  watched 
his  servants  binding  corn  head  high,  said  he  had 
never  seen  the  like  before.  In  the  hazel-woods  the 
nuts  bent  the  branches,  so  thick  were  they,  so 
succulent ;  *the  hip  and  the  how,  the  blaeberry  and 
the  rowan,  swelled  grossly  in  a  constant  sun; 
the  orchards  of  the  richer  folks  were  in  a  revelry 
of  fruit.  Somehow  the  winter  grudged,  as  it 
were,  to  come.  For  ordinary,  October  sees  the 
trees  that  beard  Dunchuach  and  hang  for  miles 
on  the  side  of  Creag  Dubh  searing  and  falling 
below  the  frost ;  this  season  the  cold  stayed  aloof 
long,  and  friendly  winds  roved  from  the  west  and 
south.  The  forests  gleamed  in  a  golden  fire  that 
only  cooled  to  darkness  when  the  firs,  my  proud 
tall  friends,  held  up  their  tasselled  heads  in  un- 
qucnching  green.  Birds  swarmed  in  the  heather, 
and  the  sides  of  the  bare  hills  moved  constantly 
with  deer.  Never  a  stream  in  all  real  Argile  but 
boiled  with  fish;  you  came  down  to  Eas-a-chlcidh 
on  the  Aora  with  a  creel  and  dipped  it  into  the 
linn  to  bring  out  salmon  rolling  with  fat. 

All  this  I  dwell  on  for  a  sensible  purpose,  though 
it  may  seem  to  be  but  an  old  fellow's  boasting  and 
a  childish  vanity  about  my  own  calf-country.  'T  is 
the  picture  I  would  paint  —  a  land  laughing  and 


JOHN   SPLENDID  yy 

content,  well  governed  by  Gillesbeg,  though  Grua- 
mach  he  might  be  by  name  and  by  nature.  Four- 
pence  a  day  was  a  labourer's  wage,  but  what  need 
had  one  of  even  fourpence,  with  his  hut  free  and 
the  food  piling  richly  at  his  very  door? 


78  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER  VI 

MY   LADY   OF   MOODS 

On  the  27th  of  July  in  this  same  year  1644,  we 
saw  his  lordship  and  his  clan  march  from  Tnnera- 
ora  to  the  dreary  north.  By  all  accounts  (brought 
in  to  the  Marquis  by  foot-runners  from  the  frontier 
of  Lorn),  the  Irishry  of  Colkitto  numbered  no 
more  than  1200,  badly  armed  with  old  matchlocks 
and  hampered  by  two  or  three  dozen  camp-women 
bearing  the  bairns  of  this  dirty  regiment  at  their 
breasts.  Add  to  this  as  many  Highlanders  under 
Montrose  and  his  cousin  Para  Dubh  of  Inch- 
brackie,  and  there  was  but  a  force  of  3 500  men  for 
the  good  government  of  Argile  to  face.  But  what 
were  they?  If  the  Irish  were  poorly  set  up  in 
weapons,  the  Gaels  were  worse.  On  the  spring 
before,  Gillesbeg  had  harried  Athole,  and  was 
cunning  enough  to  leave  its  armouries  as  bare 
as  the  fields  he  burned,  so  now  its  clans  had  but 
home-made  claymores,  bows,  and  arrows,  Lochabcr 
tnagJis  and  cudgels,  with  no  heavy  pieces.  The 
cavalry  of  this  unholy  gang  was  but  three  garrons, 
string,  and  bone  —  ovinino  strigosos  ct  emaciatos. 
Worse  than  their  ill-arming,  as  any  soldier  of 
experience  will  allow,  were  the  jealousies  between 
the  two  bodies  of  this  scratched-up  army.  Did 
ever  one  see  a  Gael  that  nestled  to  an  Irishman? 


JOHN    SPLENDID  79 

Here  's  one  who  will  swear  it  impossible,  though 
it  is  said  the  blood  is  the  same  in  both  races,  and 
we  nowadays  read  the  same  Gaelic  Bible.  Col- 
kitto  MacDonald  was  Gael  by  birth  and  young 
breeding,  but  Erinach  by  career,  and  repugnant 
to  the  most  malignant  of  the  west  clans  before  they 
got  to  learn,  as  they  did  later,  his  quality  as  a 
leader.  He  bore  down  on  Athole,  he  and  his 
towsy  rabble,  hoping  to  get  the  clans  there  to  join 
him  greedily  for  the  sake  of  the  old  feud  against 
MacCailein  Mor,  but  the  Stewarts  would  have 
nothing  to  say  to  him,  and  blows  were  not  far  off 
when  Montrose  and  his  cousin  Black  Pate  came  on 
the  scene  with  his  king's  licence. 

To  meet  this  array  now  playing  havoc  on  the 
edge  of  Campbell  country,  rumour  said  two  armies 
were  moving  from  the  north  and  east;  if  Argile 
knew  of  them  he  kept  his  own  counsel  on  the 
point,  but  he  gave  colour  to  the  tale  by  moving 
from  Inneraora  with  no  more  than  2000  foot  and 
a  troop  of  horse.  These  regimentals  had  mustered 
three  days  previously,  camping  on  the  usual  camp- 
ing-ground at  the  Maltland,  where  I  spent  the  last 
day  and  night  with  them.  They  were,  for  the 
main  part,  the  Campbells  of  the  shire:  of  them 
alone  the  chief  could  muster  5000  half-merkland 
men  at  a  first  levy,  all  capable  swordsmen,  well 
drilled  and  disciplined  soldadoes,  who  had,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  usual  schooling  in  arms  of  every  Gael, 
been  taught  many  of  the  niceties  of  new-fashioned 
war,  countermarch,  wheeling,  and  pike-drill.  To 
hear  the  old  orders,  "  Pouldron  to  Pouldron  ;  keep 


8o  JOHN   SPLENDID 

your  files ;  and  middlemen  come  forth  !  "  was  like 
an  echo  from  my  old  days  in  Germanic.  These 
manoeuvres  they  were  instructed  in  by  hired  vet- 
erans of  the  Munro  and  Mackay  battalions  who 
fought  with  Adolphus.  Four  or  five  companies 
of  Lowland  soldiers  from  Dunbarton  and  Stirling 
eked  out  the  strength ;  much  was  expected  from 
the  latter,  for  they  were,  unlike  our  clansmen,  never 
off  the  parade-ground,  and  were  in  receipt  of  pay 
for  their  militant  service ;  but  as  events  proved, 
they  were  MacCailein's  poor  reed. 

I  spent,  as  I  have  said,  a  day  and  a  night  in  the 
camp  between  Aora  river  and  the  deep  wood  of 
Tarradubh.  The  plain  hummed  with  our  little 
army,  where  now  are  but  the  nettle  and  the  ivied 
tower,  and  the  yellow  bee  booming  through  the 
solitude  ;  morning  and  night  the  shrill  of  the  piob- 
mhor  rang  cheerily  to  the  ear  of  Dunchuach  ;  the 
sharp  call  of  the  chieftains  and  sergeants,  the  tramp 
of  the  brogued  feet  in  their  simple  evolutions;  the 
clatter  of  arms,  the  contention  and  the  laughing, 
the  song,  the  reprimand,  the  challenge,  the  jest  — 
all  these  were  pleasant  to  me. 

One  morning  I  got  up  from  a  bed  of  gall  or 
bog-myrtle  I  shared  with  John  Splendid  after  a 
late  game  of  chess,  and  fared  out  on  a  little  emi- 
nence looking  over  the  scene.  Not  a  soldier 
stirred  in  his  plaid ;  the  army  was  drugged  by 
the  heavy  fir-winds  from  the  forest  behind.  The 
light  of  the  morning  flowed  up  wider  and  whiter 
from  the  Cowal  hills,  the  birds  woke  to  a  rain  of 
twittering   prayer  among  the   bushes    ere  ever  a 


JOHN    SPLENDID  8i 

man  stirred  more  than  from  side  to  side  to  change 
his  dream.  It  was  the  most  melancholy  hour  I 
ever  experienced,  and  I  have  seen  fields  in  the 
wan  morning  before  many  a  throng  and  bloody 
day.  I  felt  "  fey,"  as  we  say  at  home  —  a  pre- 
monition that  here  was  no  conquering  force,  a 
sorrow  for  the  glens  raped  of  their  manhood,  and 
hearths  to  be  desolate.  By-and-bye  the  camp 
moved  into  life,  Dunbarton's  drums  beat  the 
reveille,  the  pipers  arose,  doffed  their  bonnets  to 
the  sun,  and  played  a  rouse ;  my  gloom  passed 
like  a  mist  from  the  mountains. 

They  went  north  by  the  Aora  passes  into  the 
country  of  Bredalbane,  and  my  story  need  not 
follow  them  beyond. 

Inneraora  burghers  went  back  to  their  com- 
mercial affairs,  and  I  went  to  Glen  Shira  to  spend 
calm  days  on  the  river  and  the  hill.  My  father 
seemed  to  age  perceptibly,  reflecting  on  his  com- 
panion gone,  and  he  clung  to  me  like  the  crotal 
to  the  stone.  Then  it  was  (I  think)  that  some  of 
the  sobriety  of  life  first  came  to  me,  a  more  often 
cogitation  and  balancing  of  affairs.  I  began  to 
see  some  of  the  tanglement  of  nature,  and  appre- 
ciate the  solemn  mystery  of  our  travel  across  this 
vexed  and  care-warped  world.  Before,  I  was  full 
of  the  wine  of  youth,  giving  doubt  of  nothing  a 
lodgment  in  my  mind,  acting  ever  on  the  impulse, 
sucking  the  lemon,  seeds  and  all,  and  finding  it 
unco  sappy  and  piquant  to  the  palate.  To  be 
face  to  face  day  after  day  with  this  old  man's 
grief,   burdened   with   his    most    apparent    double 

6 


82  JOHN   SPLENDID 

love,  conscious  that  I  was  his  singular  bond  to 
the  world  he  would  otherwise  be  keen  to  be  leav- 
ing, set  me  to  chasten  my  dalliance  with  fate. 
Still  and  on,  our  affection  and  its  working  on  my 
prentice  mind  is  nothing  to  dwell  on  publicly. 
I  've  seen  bearded  men  kiss  each  other  in  France, 
a  most  scandalous  exhibition  surely,  one  at  any 
rate  that  I  never  gazed  on  without  some  natural 
Highland  shame,  and  I  would  as  soon  kiss  m}' 
father  at  high  noon  on  the  open  street  as  dwell 
with  paper  and  ink  upon  my  feeling  to  him. 

We  settled  down  to  a  few  quiet  weeks  after  the 
troops  had  gone.  Rumours  came  of  skirmishes 
at  Tippermuir  and  elsewhere.  I  am  aware  that 
the  fabulous  Wishart  makes  out  that  our  lads  were 
defeated  by  Montrose  at  every  turning,  claiming 
even  Dundee,  Crief,  Strathbogie,  Methven  Wood, 
Philiphaugh,  Inverness,  and  Dunbeath.  Let  any 
one  coldly  calculate  the  old  rogue's  narrative,  and 
it  will  honestly  appear  that  the  winner  was  more 
often  Argile,  though  his  lordship  never  followed 
up  his  advantage  with  slaughter  and  massacre  as 
did  his  foes  at  Aberdeen.  All  these  doings  We 
heard  of  but  vaguely,  for  few  came  back  except 
an  odd  lad  wounded  and  cut  off  in  the  wilds  of 
Atholc  from  the  main  body. 

Constant  sentinels  watched  the  land  from  the 
fort  of  Dunchuach,  that  dominates  every  pass  into 
our  country,  and  outer  guards  took  day  and  night 
about  on  the  remoter  alleys  of  Aora  and  Shira 
Glens.  South,  east,  and  west,  we  had  friendly 
frontiers ;    only    to    the    north    were    menace    and 


JOHN    SPLENDID  83 

danger,  and  from  the  north  came  our  scaith — the 
savage  north  and  jealous. 

These  considerations  seemed,  on  the  surface, 
Httle  to  affect  Inneraora  and  its  adjacent  parts. 
We  slept  soundly  at  night,  knowing  the  warders 
were  alert;  the  women  with  absent  husbands 
tempered  their  anxiety  with  the  philosophy  that 
comes  to  a  race  ever  bound  to  defend  its  own 
doors. 

The  common  folks  had  ceilidhs  at  night,  gossip 
parties  in  each  other's  houses,  and  in  our  own  hall 
the  herds  and  shepherds  often  convocate  to  change 
stories,  the  tales  of  the  Fingalians,  Ossian  and  the 
Finne.  The  burgh  was  a  great  place  for  suppers 
too,  and  never  ceilidh  nor  supper  went  I  to,  but 
the  daughter  of  Provost  Brown  was  there  before 
me.  She  took  a  dislike  to  me,  I  guessed  at  last, 
perhaps  thinking  I  appeared  too  often,  and  I  was 
never  fully  convinced  of  this  till  I  met  her  once 
with  some  companions  walking  in  the  garden  of 
the  castle,  that  always  stood  open  for  respectable 
visitors. 

I  was  passing  up  the  Dame's  Pad,  as  it  was 
called,  a  little  turfed  road,  overhung  by  walnut 
trees  brought  by  the  old  Earl  from  England.  I 
had  on  a  Lowland  costume  with  a  velvet  coat  and 
buckled  shoes,  and  one  or  two  vanities  a  young 
fellow  would  naturally  be  set  up  about,  and  the 
consciousness  of  my  trim  clothing  put  me  in  a 
very  complacent  mood  as  I  stopped  and  spoke 
with  the  damsels. 

They   were    pretty  girls    all,    and   I    remember 


84  JOHN   SPLENDID 

particularly  that  Betty  had  a  spray  of  bog-myrtle 
and  heather  fastened  at  a  brooch  at  her  neck. 

She  was  the  only  one  who  received  me  coldl}', 
seemed  indeed  impatient  to  be  off,  leaving  the 
conversation  to  her  friends  while  she  toyed  with  a 
few  late  flowers  on  the  bushes  beside  her. 

"  You  should  never  put  heather  and  gall  to- 
gether," I  said  to  her  rallyingly. 

"  Indeed  !  "  she  said,  flushing.  "  Here  's  one 
who  wears  what  she  chooses,  regardless  of  custom 
or  freit." 

"  But  you  know,"  I  said,  "  the  badge  of  the 
Campbell  goes  badly  with  that  of  so  bitter  a  foe  as 
the  MacDonald.  You  might  as  well  add  the  oat- 
stalk  of  Montrose,  and  make  the  emblem  tell  the 
story  of  those  troubles." 

It  was  meant  in  good  humour,  but  for  some 
reason  it  seemed  to  sting  her  to  the  quick.  I 
could  see  it  in  the  flash  of  her  eyes  and  the  re- 
newed flush  at  her  temples. 

There  was  a  little  mischievous  girl  in  the  com- 
pany, who  giggled  and  said,  "  Betty  's  in  a  bad  key 
to-day;   her  sweetheart  has  vexed  her  surely." 

It  was  a  trivial  remark,  but  I  went  off  with  it  in 
my  mind. 

A  strange  interest  in  the  moods  of  this  old 
school-friend  had  begun  to  stir  me.  Meeting  her 
on  my  daily  walks  to  town  by  the  back  way 
through  the  new  avenue,  I  found  her  seemingly 
anxious  to  avoid  me,  and  difficult  to  warm  to  any 
interest  but  in  the  most  remote  and  abstract  affairs. 
Herself  she  would  never  speak  of,  her  plans,  cares, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  85 

ambitions,  preferences,  or  aversions ;  she  seemed 
dour  set  on  aloofness.  And  though  she  appeared 
to  hsten  to  my  modestly  phrased  exploits  with 
attention  and  respect,  and  some  trepidation  at  the 
dangerous  portions,  she  had  notably  more  interest 
in  my  talk  of  others.  Ours  was  the  only  big  house 
in  the  glen  she  never  came  calling  to,  though  her 
father  was  an  attentive  visitor  and  supped  his 
curds-and-cream  of  a  Saturday  with  friendly  gusto, 
apologising  for  her  finding  something  to  amuse 
and  detain  her  at  Roderick's  over  the  way,  or  the 
widow's  at  Gearran  Bridge. 

I  would  go  out  on  these  occasions  and  walk  in 
the  open  air  with  a  heart  uneasy. 

And  now  it  was  I  came  to  conclude,  after  all, 
that  much  as  a  man  may  learn  of  many  women 
studied  indifferently,  there  is  something  magical 
about  his  personal  regard  for  one,  that  sets  up  a 
barrier  of  mystery  between  them.  So  long  as  I 
in  former  years  went  on  the  gay  assumption  that 
every  girl's  character  was  on  the  surface,  and  I 
made  no  effort  to  probe  deeper,  I  was  the  confi- 
dent, the  friend,  of  many  a  fine  woman.  They 
all  smiled  at  my  douce  sobriety,  but  in  the  end 
they  preferred  it  to  the  gaudy  recklessness  of  more 
handsome  men. 

But  here  was  the  conclusion  of  my  complacent 
belief  in  my  knowledge  of  the  sex.  The  oftener  I 
met  her  the  worse  my  friendship  progressed.  She 
became  a  problem  behind  a  pretty  mask,  and  I 
would  sit  down,  as  it  were,  dumb  before  it  and 
guess  at  the  real  woman  within.     Her  step  on  the 


86  JOHN    SPLENDID 

road  as  we  would  come  to  an  unexpected  meet- 
ing, her  handling  of  a  flower  I  might  give  her  in 
a  courtesy,  her  most  indifferent  word  as  we  met  or 
parted,  became  a  precious  clue  I  must  ponder  on 
for  hours.  And  the  more  I  weighed  these  things, 
the  more  confused  thereafter  I  became  in  her  pres- 
ence. "  If  I  were  in  love  with  the  girl,"  I  had  to 
say  to  myself  at  last,  "  I  could  not  be  more  en- 
grossed in  her  mind." 

The  hill  itself,  with  days  of  eager  hunting  after 
the  red-deer,  brought  not  enough  distraction, 
and  to  stand  by  the  mountain  tarns  and  fish  the 
dark  trout  was  to  hold  a  lonely  carnival  with 
discontent. 

It  happened  sometimes  that  on  the  street  of  In- 
neraora  I  would  meet  Betty  convoying  her  cousin 
young  MacLachlan  to  his  wherry  (he  now  took 
care  to  leave  for  home  betimes),  or  with  his  sister 
going  about  the  shops.  It  would  be  but  a  bow  in 
the  bye-going,  she  passing  on  with  equanimity, 
and  I  with  a  maddening  sense  of  awkwardness, 
that  was  not  much  bettered  by  the  tattle  of  the 
plainstanes,  where  merchant  lads  and  others  made 
audible  comment  on  the  cousinly  ardour  of  young 
Lachic. 

On  Sundays,  perhaps  worst  of  all,  I  found  my 
mind's  torment.  Our  kirk  to-day  is  a  building  of 
substantiality  and  even  grace  ;  then  it  was  a  some- 
what squalid  place  of  worship,  in  whose  rafters  the 
pigeons  trespassed  and  the  swallow  built  her  home. 
We  sat  in  torturous  high-backed  benches  so  nar- 
row that  our  knees  rasped  the  boards  before  us, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  87 

and  sleep  in  Master  Gordon's  most  dreary  dis- 
course was  impossible.  Each  good  family  in  the 
neighbourhood  had  its  own  pew,  and  Elrigmore's, 
as  it  is  to  this  day,  lay  well  in  the  rear  among  the 
shadows  of  the  loft,  while  the  Provost's  was  a  little 
to  the  left  and  at  right  angles,  so  that  its  occupants 
and  ours  were  in  a  manner  face  to  face. 

Old  Gordon  would  be  into  many  deeps  of  doc- 
trine no  doubt  while  I  was  in  the  deeper  depths 
of  speculation  upon  my  lady's  mind.  I  think  I 
found  no  great  edification  from  the  worship  of 
those  days  —  shame  to  tell  it! — for  the  psalms 
we  chanted  had  inevitably  some  relevance  to  an 
earthly  affection,  and  my  eyes  were  for  ever  roam- 
ing from  the  book  or  from  the  preacher's  sombre 
face. 

They  might  rove  far  and  long,  but  the  end  of 
each  journey  round  that  dull  interior  was  ever  in 
the  Provost's  pew,  and,  as  if  by  some  hint  of  the 
spirit,  though  Betty  might  be  gazing  steadfastly 
where  she  ought,  I  knew  that  she  knew  I  was  look- 
ing on  her.  It  needed  but  my  glance  to  bring  a 
flush  to  her  averted  face.  Was  it  the  flush  of  an- 
noyance or  of  the  conscious  heart?  1  asked  my- 
self, and  remembering  her  coldness  elsewhere,  I 
was  fain  to  think  my  interest  was  considered  an 
impertinence.  And  there  I  would  be  in  a  cold 
perspiration  of  sorry  apprehension. 


88  JOHN   SPLENDID 

CHAPTER  VII 

CHILDREN    OF  THE   MIST 

The  Highlanders  of  Lochabcr,  as  the  old  saying 
goes,  "  pay  their  daughters'  tocher  by  the  light  of 
the  Michaelmas  moon."  Then  it  was  that  they 
were  wont  to  come  over  our  seven  hills  and  seven 
waters  to  help  themselves  to  our  cattle  when  the 
same  were  at  their  fattest  and  best.  It  would  be  a 
skurry  of  bare  knees  down  pass  and  brae,  a  ring  of 
the  robbers  round  the  herd  sheltering  on  the  bieldy 
side  of  the  hill  or  in  the  hollows  among  the  ripe 
grass,  a  brisk  change  of  shot  and  blow  if  alarm 
rose,  and  then  hie  !  over  the  moor  by  Macfarlane's 
lantern. 

This  Michaelmas  my  father  put  up  a  huailc- 
inhart,  a  square  fold  of  wattle  and  whinstone, 
into  which  the  herdsmen  drove  the  lowing  beasts 
at  the  mouth  of  every  evening,  and  took  turn 
about  in  watching  them  throughout  the  clear  sea- 
son. It  was  perhaps  hardly  needed,  for  indeed 
the  men  of  Lochaber  and  Glenfalloch  and  the 
other  dishonest  regions  around  us  were  too  busy 
dipping  their  hands  in  the  dirty  work  of  Mont- 
rose and  his  Irish  major-general  to  have  any  time 
for  their  usual  autumn's  recreation.  But  a  bnaile- 
mhart  when  shifted  from  time  to  time  in  a  field  is 
a  profitable  device  in  agriculture,  and  custom  had 


JOHN   SPLENDID  89 

made  the  existence  of  it  almost  a  necessity  to  the 
sound  slumber  of  our  glens.  There  was  a  pleas- 
ant habit,  too,  of  neighbours  gathering  at  night 
about  a  fire  within  one  of  the  spaces  of  the  fold 
and  telling  tales  and  singing  songs.  Our  whole 
West  Country  is  full  of  the  most  wonderful  stories 
one  might  seek  in  vain  for  among  the  world  of 
books  and  scholars  —  of  giants  and  dwarfs,  fairies, 
wizards,  and  water-horse  and  sea-maiden.  The 
most  unlikely  looking  peasant  that  ever  put  his 
foot  to  a  cas-chrom,  the  most  uncouth  hunter  that 
ever  paunched  a  deer,  would  tell  of  such  histories 
in  the  most  scrupulous  language  and  with  cunning 
regard  for  figure  of  speech.  I  know  that  nowa- 
days, among  people  of  esteemed  cultivation  in  the 
low  country  and  elsewhere,  such  a  diversion  might 
be  thought  a  waste  of  time,  such  narratives  a  sign 
of  superstition.  Of  that  I  am  not  so  certain.  The 
practice,  if  it  did  no  more,  gave  wings  to  our  most 
sombre  hours,  and  put  a  point  on  the  imagination. 
As  for  the  superstition  of  the  tales  of  ceilidh  and 
buailc-inJiart  I  have  little  to  say.  Perhaps  the 
dullest  among  us  scarce  credited  the  giant  and 
dwarf;  but  the  Little  Folks  are  yet  on  our  top- 
most hills. 

A  doctor  laughed  at  me  once  for  an  experience 
of  my  own  at  the  Piper's  Knowe,  in  which  any 
man,  with  a  couchant  ear  close  to  the  grass,  may 
hear  fairy  tunes  piped  in  the  under-world. 

"  A  trick  of  the  senses,"  said  he. 

"  But  I  can  bring  you  scores  who  have  heard 
it !  "  said  L 


90  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"  So  they  said  of  every  miracle  since  time  be- 
gan," said  he;  "  it  but  proves  tlie  widespread  folly 
and  credulity  of  human  nature." 

I  protested  I  could  bring  him  to  the  very  spot 
or  whistle  him  the  very  tunes;  but  he  was  busy, 
and  wondered  so  sedate  a  man  as  myself  could 
cherish  so  strange  a  delusion. 

Our  fold  on  Elrigmore  was  in  the  centre  of  a  flat 
meadowland  that  lies  above  Dhu  Loch,  where  the 
river  winds  among  rush  and  willow-tree,  a  constant 
whisperer  of  love  and  the  distant  hills  and  the  salt 
inevitable  sea.  There  we  would  be  lying  under 
moon  and  star,  and  beside  us  the  cattle  deeply 
breathing  all  night  long.  To  the  simple  talc  of 
old,  to  the  humble  song,  these  circumstances  gave 
a  weight  and  dignity  they  may  have  wanted  else- 
where. Never  a  teller  of  tale,  or  a  singer  of  song 
so  artless  in  that  hour  and  mood  of  nature  but  he 
hung  us  breathless  on  his  every  accent;  we  were 
lone  inhabitants  of  a  little  space  in  a  magic  glen, 
and  the  great  world  outside  the  flicker  of  our  fire 
hummed  untenanted  and  empty  through  the  jeal- 
ous night. 

It  happened  on  a  night  of  nights  —  as  the  saying 
goes — that  thus  we  were  gathered  in  the  rushy 
flat  of  Elrigmore  and  our  hearts  easy  as  to  reiver 
—  for  was  not  MacCailein  scourging  them  over  the 
north?  —  when  a  hint  came  to  us  of  a  strange  end 
to  these  Lorn  wars,  and  of  the  last  days  of  the 
Lord  of  Argile.  A  night  with  a  sky  almost  pallid, 
freckled  with  sparkling  stars ;  a  great  moon  with 
a  brock  or  aureole  round  it,  rolling    in    the    east, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  91 

and  the  scent  of  fern  and  heather  thick  upon 
the  air. 

We  had  heard  many  stories,  we  had  joined  in 
a  song  or  two  ;  we  had  set  proverb  and  guess  and 
witty  saying  round  and  round,  and  it  was  the 
young  morning  when  through  the  long  grass  to 
the  fold  came  a  band  of  strangers.  We  were  their 
equal  in  numbers,  whatever  their  mission  might  be, 
and  we  waited  calmly  where  we  were,  to  watch. 

The  bulk  of  them  stood  back  from  the  pin-fold 
wall,  and  three  of  them  came  forward  and  put  arms 
upon  the  topmost  divots,  so  that  they  could  look 
in  and  see  the  watchers  gathered  round  the  fire. 

"  Co  tlia'n  sud's  an  uchd  air  a  bhuaile?  "  ("  Who 
is  there  leaning  on  the  fold?")  asked  one  of  our 
men,  with  a  long  bow  at  stretch  in  his  hands. 

He  got  no  answer  from  any  of  the  three  strangers, 
who  looked  ghastly  eerie  in  their  silence  on  the 
wall. 

"  Mar  freagar  sibh  mise  bithidh  m'inthaidh  aig 
an  fhear  as  gile  broilleach  agaibh  "  ("  My  arrow's 
for  the  whitest  breast,  if  ye  make  no  answer"), 
said  my  man,  and  there  was  no  answer. 

The  string  twanged,  the  arrow  sped,  and  the 
stranger  with  the  white  breast  fell  —  shot  through 
her  kerchief  For  she  was  a  woman  of  the  clan 
they  name  Macaulay,  children  of  the  mist,  a  luck- 
less dame  that,  when  we  rushed  out  to  face  her 
company,  they  left  dying  on  the  field. 

They  were  the  robber  widows  of  the  clan,  a  gang 
then  unknown  to  us,  but  namely  now  through  the 
west  for  their  depredations  when   the   absence  of 


92  JOHN   SPLENDID 

their  men  in  battles  threw  them  upon  their  own 
resource. 

And  she  was  the  oldest  of  her  company,  a  half- 
witted creature  we  grieved  at  slaying,  but  reptile 
in  her  malice.  For  as  she  lay  passing,  with  the 
blood  oozing  to  her  breast,  she  reviled  us  with 
curses  that  overran  each  other  in  their  hurry  from 
her  foul  lips. 

"  Dogs  !  dogs  !  —  heaven's  worst  ill  on  ye, 
dogs ! "  she  cried,  a  waeful  spectacle,  and  she 
spat  on  us  as  we  carried  her  beside  the  fire  to  try 
and  staunch  her  wound.  She  had  a  fierce  knife  at 
her  waist  and  would  have  used  it  had  she  the 
chance,  but  we  removed  it  from  her  reach,  and  she 
poured  a  fresher,  fuller  stream  of  malediction. 

Her  voice  at  last  broke  and  failed  to  a  thin  pip- 
ing whisper,  and  it  was  then  —  with  the  sweat  on 
her  brow  —  she  gave  the  hint  I  speak  of,  the  hint 
of  the  war's  end  and  the  end  of  MacCailein  Mor. 

"  Wry-mouths,  wry-mouths  !  "  said  she;  "  I  see 
the  heather  above  the  myrtle  on  Lhinne-side,  and 
MacCailein's  head  on  a  post." 

That  was  all. 

It  is  a  story  you  will  find  in  no  books,  and  yet 
a  story  that  has  been  told  sometime  or  other  by 
every  fireside  of  the  shire — not  before  the  pro- 
phecy was  fulfilled  but  after,  when  we  were  loosed 
from  our  bonded  word.  For  there  and  then  we 
took  oath  on  steel  to  tell  no  one  of  the  woman's 
saying  till  the  fulness  of  time  should  justify  or 
disgrace  the  same. 

Though  I  took  oath  on  this  melancholy  busi- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  93 

ness  like  the  rest,  there  was  one  occasion,  but  a 
day  or  two  after,  that  I  almost  broke  my  pledged 
word,  and  that  to  the  lady  who  disturbed  my 
Sunday  worship  and  gave  me  so  much  reflection 
on  the  hunting-road.  Her  father,  as  I  have  said, 
came  up  often  on  a  Saturday  and  supped  his 
curds-and-cream  and  grew  cheery  over  a  Dutch 
bottle  with  my  father,  and  one  day,  as  luck  had 
it,  Betty  honoured  our  poor  doorstep.  She  came 
so  far,  perhaps,  because  our  men  and  women 
were  at  work  on  the  field  I  mention,  whose  second 
crop  of  grass  they  were  airing  for  the  winter  byres 
—  a  custom  brought  to  the  glen  from  foreign 
parts,  and  with  much  to  recommend  it. 

I  had  such  a  trepidation  at  her  presence  that 
I  had  almost  fled  on  some  poor  excuse  to  the  hill ; 
but  the  Provost,  who  perhaps  had  made  sundry 
calls  in  the  bye-going  at  houses  further  down  the 
glen,  and  was  in  a  mellow  humour,  jerked  a  finger 
over  his  shoulder  towards  the  girl  as  she  stood 
hesitating  in  the  hall  after  a  few  words  with  my 
father  and  me,  and  said,  "  I  've  brought  you  a 
good  harvester  here,  Colin,  and  she  '11  give  you  a 
day's  darg  for  a  kiss." 

I  stammered  a  stupid  comment  that  the  wage 
would  be  well  earned  on  so  warm  a  day,  and  could 
have  choked,  the  next  moment,  at  my  rusticity. 

Mistress  Betty  coloured  and  bit  her  lip. 

"  Look  at  the  hussy !  "  said  her  father  again, 
laughing  with  heaving  shoulders.  "'Where  shall 
we  go  to-day  on  our  rounds?'  said  L  'Where  but 
to  Elrigmore?  '  said  she ;  '  I  have  not  seen  Colin  for 


94  JOHN    SPLENDID 

an  age  ! '  Yet  I  '11  warrant  you  thought  the  cun- 
ning jade  shy  of  a  gentleman  soldier !  Ah,  those 
kirtles,  those  kirtles  !  I  '11  give  you  a  word  of 
wisdom,  sir,  you  never  learned  in  Glasgow  Hie 
Street  nor  in  the  army." 

I  looked  helplessly  after  the  girl,  who  had  fled, 
incontinent,  to  the  women  at  work  in  the  field. 

"  Well,  sir,"  I  said,  "  I  shall  be  pleased  to  hear 
it.  If  it  has  any  pertinence  to  the  harvesting  of 
a  second  crop  it  would  be  welcome." 

My  father  sighed.  He  never  entered  very 
heartily  into  diversion  nowadays  —  small  wonder  ! 
—  so  the  Provost  laughed  on  with  his  counsel. 

"  You  know  very  well  it  has  nothing  to  do  with 
harvesting  nor  harrowing,"  he  cried ;  "  I  said 
kirtles,  didn't  I!  And  you  needn't  be  so  coy 
about  the  matter;  surely  to  God  you  never  learned 
modesty  at  your  trade  of  sacking  towns.  Many  a 
wench " 

"About  this  counsel,"  I  put  in;  "I  have  no 
trick  or  tale  of  wenchcraft  beyond  the  most  inno- 
cent. And  beside,  sir,  I  think  we  were  just  talking 
of  a  lady  who  is  your  daughter." 

Even  in  his  glass  he  was  the  gentleman,  for  he 
saw  the  suggestion  at  once. 

"Of  course,  of  course,  Colin,"  he  said  hurriedly, 
coughing  in  a  confusion.  "  Never  mind  an  old 
fool's  havering."  Then  said  he  again,  "  There  's 
a  boy  at  many  an  old  man's  heart.  I  saw  you 
standing  there  and  my  daughter  was  yonder,  and 
it  just  came  over  me  like  the  verse  of  a  song  that 
I  was  like  you  when  I  courted  her  mother.     My 


JOHN   SPLENDID  95 

sorrow !  it  looks  but  yesterday,  and  yet  here  's  an 
old  done  man  !  Folks  have  been  born  and  married 
(some  of  them)  and  died  since  syne,  and  I  've  been 
going  through  life  with  my  eyes  shut  to  my  own 
antiquity.  It  came  on  me  like  a  flash  three  min- 
utes ago,  that  this  gross  oldster,  sitting  of  a  Satur- 
day sipping  the  good  aqua  of  Elrigmorc,  with  a 
pendulous  waistcoat  and  a  wrinkled  hand,  is  not 
the  lad  whose  youth  and  courtship  you  put  me  in 
mind  of." 

"  Stretch  your  hand,  Provost,  and  fill  your  glass," 
said  my  father.  He  was  not  merry  in  his  later 
years,  but  he  had  a  hospitable  heart. 

The  two  of  them  sat  dumb  a  space,  heedless  of 
the  bottle  or  me,  and  at  last,  to  mar  their  manifest 
sad  reflections,  I  brought  the  Provost  back  to  the 
topic  of  his  counsel. 

"  You  had  a  word  of  advice,"  I  said,  very  softly. 
There  was  a  small  tinge  of  pleasure  in  my  guess 
that  what  he  had  to  say  might  have  reference  to 
his  daughter. 

"  Man  !  I  forget  now,"  he  said,  rousing  himself. 
"What  were  we  on?" 

"  Harvesting,"  said  father. 

"No,  sir;  kirtles,"  said  I. 

"  Kirtles ;  so  it  was,"  said  the  Provost.  "  My 
wife  at  Betty's  age,  when  I  first  sought  her  com- 
pany, was  my  daughter's  very  model,  in  face  and 
figure." 

"  She  was  a  handsome  woman,  Provost,"  said  my 
father." 

"  I  can  well  believe  it,"  said  I. 


96  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  She  is  that  to-da}',"  cried  the  Provost,  pursing 
his  lips  and  lifting  up  his  chin  in  a  challenge. 
"And  I  learned  one  thing  at  the  courting  of  her 
which  is  the  gist  of  my  word  of  wisdom  to  you, 
Colin.  Keep  it  in  mind  till  you  need  it.  It 's 
this :  There  's  one  thing  a  woman  will  put  up  with 
blandly  in  every  man  but  the  one  man  she  has  a 
notion  of,  and  that 's  the  absence  of  conceit  about 
himself  or  her," 

In  the  field  by  the  river,  the  harvesters  sat  at  a 
mid-day  meal,  contentedly  eating  their  bannock 
and  cheese.  They  were  young  folks  all,  at  the 
age  when  toil  and  plain  living  but  give  a  zest  to 
the  errant  pleasures  of  life.  So  they  filled  their 
hour  of  leisure  with  gallivanting  among  the  mown 
and  gathered  grass. 

Let  no  one,  remembering  the  charm  of  an  autumn 
field  in  his  youth,  test  its  cheerfulness  when  he  has 
got  up  in  years.  For  he  will  find  it  lying  under  a 
sun  less  genial  than  then;  he  will  fret  at  some  in- 
fluence lost;  the  hedges  tall  and  beautiful  will  have 
turned  to  stunted  boundaries  upon  his  fancy;  he 
will  ache  at  the  heart  at  the  memory  of  those  old 
careless  crops  and  reapers  when  he  sits,  a  poor 
man  or  wealthy,  among  the  stubble  of  grass  and 
youth. 

As  I  lay  on  the  shady  side  of  an  alder  bank 
watching  our  folk  at  their  gambols,  I  found  a 
serenity  that  again  set  me  at  my  ease  with  the 
Provost's  daughter.  I  gathered  even  the  calmness 
to  invite  her  to  sit  beside  me,  and  she  made  no 
demur. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  97 

"You  are  short  of  reapers,  I  think,  by  the  look 
of  them,"  she  said  ;  "  I  miss  some  of  the  men  who 
were  here  last  year." 

They  were  gone  with  MacCailein,  I  explained, 
as  paid  volunteers. 

"  Oh  !  those  wars  !  "  she  cried  sadly.  "  I  wish 
they  were  ended.  Here  are  the  fields,  good  crops, 
food  and  happiness  for  all,  why  must  men  be 
fighting?  " 

"  Ask  your  Highland  heart,"  said  I.  "We  are 
children  of  strife." 

"  In  my  heart,"  she  replied,  "  there  's  but  love 
for  all.  I  toss  sleepless,  at  night,  thinking  of  the 
people  we  know — the  good,  kind,  gallant,  merry 
lads  we  know  —  waging  savage  battle  for  some- 
thing I  never  had  the  wit  to  discover  the  mean- 
ing of." 

"The  Almighty's  order — we  have  been  at  it 
from  the  birth  of  time." 

"  So  old  a  world  might  have  learned,"  she  said, 
"  to  break  that  order  when  they  break  so  many 
others.     Is  his  lordship  likely  to  be  back  soon?" 

"  I  wish  he  might  be,"  said  I,  with  a  dubious 
accent,  thinking  of  the  heather  above  the  myrtle 
and  MacCailein's  head  on  a  post.  "  Did  you  hear 
of  the  Macaulay  beldame  shot  by  Roderick?" 

"  Yes,"  she  said  ;  "  an  ugly  business  !  What 
has  that  to  do  with  MacCailein's  home-coming?" 

"  Very  little  indeed,"  I  answered,  recalling  our 
bond ;  "  but  she  cursed  his  lordship  and  his  army 
with  a  zeal  that  was  alarming,  even  to  an  old  soldier 
of  Sweden." 

7 


98  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"  God  ward  all  evil !  "  cried  Betty  in  a  passion  of 
earnestness.  "  You  '11  be  glad  to  see  your  friend 
M'lver  back,  I  make  no  doubt." 

"Oh!  he's  an  old  hand  at  war,  madam;  he'll 
come  safe  out  of  this  by  his  luck  and  skill,  if  he 
left  the  army  behind  him." 

"  I  'm  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  she,  smiling. 

"What!"  I  cried  in  raillery;  "would  you  be 
grateful  for  so  poor  a  balance  left  of  a  noble 
army?  " 

And  she  reddened  and  smiled  again,  and  a  ser- 
vant cried  us  in  to  the  dinner-table. 

In  spite  of  the  Macaulay  prophecy,  MacCailein 
and  his  men  came  home  in  the  fulness  of  time. 
They  came  with  the  first  snowstorm  of  winter,  the 
clan  in  companies  down  Glenaora  and  his  lordship 
roundabout  by  the  Lowlands,  where  he  had  a  mis- 
sion to  the  Estates.  The  war,  for  the  time,  was 
over,  a  truce  of  a  kind  was  patched  up,  and  there 
was  a  cheerful  prospect  —  too  briefly  ours — that 
the  country  would  settle  anon  to  peace. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  99 

CHAPTER   Vni 

THE    BALE-FIRES   ON   THE  BENT 

Hard  on  the  heels  of  the  snow  came  a  frost  that 
put  shackles  on  the  very  wind.  It  fell  black  and 
sudden  on  the  country,  turning  the  mud  floors  of 
the  poorer  dwellings  into  iron  that  rang  below  the 
heel,  though  the  peat-fires  burned  by  day  and 
night,  and  Loch  Finne,  lying  flat  as  a  girdle  from 
shore  to  shore,  visibly  crisped  and  curdled  into  ice 
on  the  surface  in  the  space  of  an  afternoon.  A  sun 
almost  genial  to  look  at,  but  with  no  warmth  at  the 
heart  of  him,  rode  among  the  white  hills  that  looked 
doubly  massive  with  their  gullies  and  corries,  for 
ordinary  black  or  green,  lost  in  the  general  hue; 
and  at  mid-day  bands  of  little  white  birds  would 
move  over  the  country  from  the  north,  flapping 
weakly  to  a  warmer  clime.  They  might  stay  a 
little,  some  of  them,  deceived  by  the  hanging  peat- 
smoke  into  the  notion  that  somewhere  here  were 
warmth  and  comfort ;  but  the  cold  searched  them 
to  the  core,  and  such  as  did  not  die  on  the  roadside 
took  up  their  dismal  voyaging  anew. 

The  very  deer  came  down,  from  the  glens  — 
cabarfeidh  stags,  hinds,  and  prancing  roes.  At 
night  we  could  hear  them  bellowing  and  snorting 
as  they  went  up  and  down  the  street  in  herds  from 
Ben  Bhrec  or  the  barren  sides  of  the  Black  Mount 


lOO  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  Dalncss  in  the  land  of  Bredalbane,  seeking  the 
shore  and  the  travellers'  illusion  —  the  content 
that 's  always  to  come.  In  those  hours,  too,  the 
owls  seemed  to  surrender  the  fir-woods  and  come 
to  the  junipers  about  the  back  doors,  for  they 
kenned  in  the  darkness,  even  on,  woeful  warders 
of  the  night,  telling  the  constant  hours. 

'Twas  in  these  bitter  nights,  shivering  under 
blanket  and  plaid,  I  thought  ruefully  of  foreign 
parts,  of  the  frequented  towns  I  had  seen  else- 
where, the  cleanly  paven  streets  swept  of  snow, 
the  sea-coal  fires,  and  the  lanterns  swinging  over 
the  crowded  causeways,  signs  of  friendly  interest 
and  companionship.  Here  were  we,  poor  peas- 
ants, in  a  waste  of  frost  and  hills,  cut  ofi"  from  the 
merry  folks  sitting  by  fire  and  flame  at  ease! 
Even  our  gossiping,  our  ceilidh  in  each  other's 
houses,  was  stopped ;  except  in  the  castle  itself 
no  more  the  song  and  story,  the  pipe  and  trump. 

In  the  morning  when  one  ventured  abroad  he 
found  the  deer-slot  dimpling  all  the  snow  on  the 
street,  and  down  at  the  shore,  unafeared  of  man, 
would  be  solitary  hinds,  widows  and  rovers  from 
their  clans,  sniffing  eagerly  over  to  the  Cowal  hills. 
Poor  beasts  !  poor  beasts  !  I  've  seen  them  in  their 
madness  take  to  the  ice  for  it  when  it  was  little 
thicker  than  a  groat,  thinking  to  reach  the  oak- 
woods  of  Ardchyline.  For  a  time  the  bay  at  the 
river  mouth  was  full  of  long-tailed  ducks,  that  at  a 
whistle  almost  came  to  your  hand,  and  there  too 
came  flocks  of  wild-swan,  flying  in  wedges,  trum- 
peting as  they  flew.     Fierce  otters  quarrelled  over 


JOHN    SPLENDID  loi 

their  eels  at  the  mouth  of  the  Black  Burn  that 
flows  underneath  the  town  and  out  below  the  Tol- 
booth  to  the  shore,  or  made  the  gloaming  melan- 
choly with  their  doleful  whistle.  A  roebuck  in  his 
winter  jacket  of  mouse-brown  fur  died  one  night 
at  my  relative's  door,  and  a  sea-eagle  gorged  him- 
self so  upon  the  carcass  that  at  morning  he  could 
not  flap  a  wing,  and  fell  a  ready  victim  to  a  knock 
from  my  staff. 

The  passes  to  the  town  were  head-high  with 
drifted  snow,  our  warders  at  the  heads  of  Aora 
and  Shira  could  not  themselves  make  out  the 
road,  and  the  notion  of  added  surety  this  gave 
us  against  Antrim's  Irishmen  was  the  only  com- 
pensation for  the  ferocity  of  nature. 

In  three  days  the  salt  loch,  in  that  still  and 
ardent  air,  froze  like  a  fish-pond,  whereupon  the 
oddest  spectacle  ever  my  country-side  saw  was  his 
that  cared  to  rise  at  morning  to  see  it.  Stags  and 
hinds  in  tremendous  herds,  black  cattle,  too,  from 
the  hills,  trotted  boldly  over  the  ice  to  the  other 
side  of  the  loch,  that  in  the  clarity  of  the  air  seemed 
but  a  mile  off.  Behind  them  went  skulking  foxes, 
polecats,  badgers,  cowering  hares,  and  bead-eyed 
weasels.  They  seemed  to  have  a  premonition  that 
Famine  was  stalking  behind  them,  and  they  fled 
over  luckless  woods  and  fields  like  rats  from  a 
sinking  ship. 

To  Master  Gordon  I  said  one  morning  as  we 
watched  a  company  of  dun  heifers  mid-way  on  the 
loch,  "  This  is  an  ill  omen  or  I  'm  sore  mistaken." 

He  was  not  a  man  given  to  superstitions,  but  he 


I02  JOHN    SPLENDID 

could  not  gainsay  me.  "  There's  neither  hip  nor 
haw  left  in  our  woods,"  he  said;  "  birds  I  've 
never  known  absent  here  in  the  most  eager  win- 
ters arc  gone,  and  wild-eyed  strangers,  their  like 
never  seen  here  before,  tamely  pick  crumbs  at  my 
very  door.  Signs !  Signs !  It  beats  me  some- 
times to  know  how  the  brute  scents  the  circum- 
stance to  come,  but  —  what 's  the  Word  —  '  Not  a 
sparrow  shall  fall.'  " 

We  fed  well  on  the  wild  meat  driven  to  our  fire- 
side, and  to  it  there  never  seemed  any  end,  for  new 
flocks  took  up  the  tale  of  the  old  ones,  and  a  con- 
stant procession  of  fur  and  feather  moved  across 
our  white  prospect.  Even  the  wolf — from  Ben- 
derloch,  no  doubt  —  came  baying  at  night  at  the 
empty  gibbets  at  the  town-head,  that  spoke  of  the 
law's  suspense. 

Only  in  Castle  Inneraora  was  there  anything  to 
be  called  gaiety.  MacCailein  fumed  at  first  at  the 
storm  that  kept  his  letters  from  him,  and  spoiled 
the  laburnums  and  elms  he  was  coaxing  to  spring 
about  his  garden ;  but  soon  he  settled  down  to  his 
books  and  papers,  ever  his  solace  in  such  homely 
hours  as  the  policy  and  travel  of  his  life  permitted. 
And  if  the  burgh  was  dull  and  dark,  night  after 
night  there  was  merriment  over  the  drawbrig  of 
the  castle.  It  would  be  on  the  loth  or  the  15th 
of  the  month  I  first  sampled  it.  I  went  up  with 
a  party  from  the  town  and  neighbourhood,  with 
their  wives  and  daughters,  finding  an  atmosphere 
wondrous  different  from  that  of  the  cooped  and 
anxious  tenements  down  below.     Big  loirs  roared 


JOHN   SPLENDID  103 

behind  the  fire-dogs,  long  candles  and  plenty  lit 
the  hall,  and  pipe  and  harp  went  merrily.  Her 
ladyship  had  much  of  the  French  manner,  —  a 
dainty  dame  with  long  thin  face  and  bottle  shoul- 
ders, attired  always  in  Saxon  fashion,  and  indul- 
gent in  what  I  then  thought  a  wholesome  levity, 
that  made  up  for  the  Gruamach  husband.  And 
she  thought  him,  honestly,  the  handsomest  and 
noblest  in  the  world,  though  she  rallied  him  for 
his  over-much  sobriety  of  deportment.  To  me  she 
was  very  gracious,  for  she  had  liked  my  mother, 
and  I  think  she  planned  to  put  me  in  the  way  of 
the  Provost's  daughter  as  often  as  she  could. 

When  his  lordship  was  in  his  study,  our  dafifing 
was  in  Gaelic,  for  her  ladyship,  though  a  Morton, 
and  only  learning  the  language,  loved  to  have  it 
spoken  about  her.  Her  pleasure  was  to  play  the 
harp  —  a  clarsach  of  great  beauty,  with  lona  carv- 
ing on  it  —  to  the  singing  of  her  daughter  Jean, 
who  knew  all  the  songs  of  the  mountains  and 
sang  them  like  the  bird.  The  town  girls,  too, 
sang,  Betty  a  little  shyly,  but  as  daintily  as  her 
neighbours,  and  we  danced  a  reel  or  two  to  the 
playing  of  Paruig  Dall,  the  blind  piper.  Venison 
and  wine  were  on  the  board,  and  whiter  bread 
than  the  town  baxters  afforded.  It  all  comes  back 
on  me  now  —  that  lofty  hall,  the  skins  of  seal  and 
otter  and  of  stag  upon  the  floor,  the  flaring  can- 
dles and  the  glint  of  glass  and  silver,  the  banners 
swinging  upon  the  walls  over  devices  of  pike,  gun, 
and  claymore, — the  same  to  be  used  so  soon  ! 

The  castle,  unlike  its  successor,  sat  adjacent  to 


104  JOHN    SPLENDID 

the  river  side,  its  front  to  the  hill  of  Dunchiiach 
on  the  north,  and  its  back  a  stone-cast  from  the 
mercat  cross  and  the  throng  streets  of  the  town. 
Between  it  and  the  river  was  the  small  garden 
consecrate  to  her  ladyship's  flowers,  a  patch  of 
level  soil,  cut  in  dice  by  paths  whose  tiny  peb- 
bles and  broken  shells  crunched  beneath  the  foot 
at  any  other  season  than  now  when  the  snow  cov- 
ered all. 

John  Splendid,  who  was  of  our  party,  in  a  lull  of 
the  entertainment  was  looking  out  at  the  prospect 
from  a  window  at  the  gable  end  of  the  hall,  for  the 
moon  sailed  high  above  Strone,  and  the  outside 
world  was  beautiful  in  a  cold  and  eerie  fashion. 
Of  a  sudden  he  faced  round  and  beckoned  to  me 
with  a  hardly  noticeable  toss  of  the  head. 

I  went  over  and  stood  beside  him.  He  was 
bending  a  little  to  get  the  top  of  Dunchuach  in 
the  field  of  his  vision,  and  there  was  a  puzzled 
look  on  his  face. 

"Do  you  see  any  light  up  }'ondcr?"  he  asked, 
and  I  followed  his  query  with  a  keen  scrutiny  of 
the  summit,  where  the  fort  should  be  lying  in 
darkness  and  peace. 

There  was  a  twinkle  of  light  that  would  have 
shown  fuller  if  the  moonlight  was  less. 

"  I  see  a  spark,"  I  said,  wondering  a  little  at  his 
interest  in  so  small  an  affair. 

"That's  a  pity,"  said  he,  in  a  rueful  key.  "I 
was  hoping  it  might  be  a  private  vision  of  my  own, 
and  yet  I  might  have  known  my  dream  last  night 
of  a  white  rat  meant   something.     If  that's  flame 


JOHN   SPLENDID  105 

there's  more  to  follow.  There  should  be  no  lowe 
on  this  side  of  the  fort  after  night-fall,  unless  the 
warders  on  the  other  side  have  news  from  the 
hills  behind  Dunchuach,  In  this  matter  of  fire  at 
night,  Dunchuach  echoes  Ben  Bhuidhe  or  Ben 
Bhrec,  and  these  two  in  their  turn  carry  on  the 
light  of  our  friends  further  ben  in  Bredalbane  and 
Cruachan.  It 's  not  a  state  secret  to  tell  you  we 
were  half  feared  some  of  our  Antrim  gentry  might 
give  us  a  call;  but  the  Worst  Curse  on  the  pigs 
who  come  guesting  in  such  weather !  " 

He  was  glowering  almost  feverishly  at  the  hill- 
top, and  I  turned  round  to  see  that  the  busy  room 
had  no  share  in  our  apprehension.  The  only  eyes 
I  found  looking  in  our  direction  were  those  of 
Betty,  who  finding  herself  observed,  came  over, 
blushing  a  little,  and  looked  out  into  the  night. 

"  You  were  hiding  the  moonlight  from  me," 
she  said  with  a  smile,  a  remark  which  struck  me 
as  curious,  for  she  could  not  see  out  at  the  window 
from  where  she  sat. 

"  I  never  saw  one  who  needed  it  less,"  said 
Splendid,  and  still  he  looked  intently  at  the  mount. 
"  You  carry  your  own  with  you." 

Having  no  need  to  bend  she  saw  the  top  of 
Dunchuach  whenever  she  got  close  to  the  window, 
and  by  this  time  the  light  on  it  looked  like  a 
planet,  wan  in  the  moonlight,  but  unusually  large 
and  angry. 

"  I  never  saw  star  so  bright,"  said  the  girl,  in  a 
natural  enough  error. 

"  It 's  a  challenge  to   your  eyes,    madam,"   re- 


io6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

torted  Splendid  again,  in  a  raillery  wonderful  con- 
sidering his  anxiety,  and  he  whispered  in  my  ear 
—  "or  to  us  to  war." 

As  he  spoke,  the  report  of  a  big  gun  boomed 
through  the  frosty  air  from  Dunchuach  to  the 
plain,  and  the  beacon  flashed  up,  tall,  flaunting, 
and  unmistakable. 

John  Splendid  turned  into  the  hall  and  raised 
his  voice  a  little,  to  say  with  no  evidence  of  dis- 
turbance, — 

"  There  's  something  amiss  up  the  glens,  your 
ladyship." 

The  harp  her  ladyship  strummed  idly  on  at  the 
moment  had  stopped  on  a  ludicrous  and  unfinished 
note,  the  hum  of  conv^ersation  ended  abruptly. 
Up  to  the  window  the  company  crowded,  and  they 
could  see  the  balefire  blazing  hotly  against  the 
cool  light  of  the  moon  and  the  widely  sprinkled 
stars.  Behind  them  in  a  little  came  Argile,  one 
arm  only  thrust  hurriedly  in  a  velvet  jacket,  his 
hair  in  a  disorder,  the  pallor  of  study  on  his  cheek. 
He  very  gently  pressed  to  the  front,  and  looked 
out  with  a  lowering  brow  at  the  signal. 

"  Aye,  aye  !  "  he  said  in  the  English,  after  a 
pause  that  kept  the  room  more  intent  on  his  face 
than  on  the  balefire.  "  My  old  luck  bides  with 
me:  I  thought  the  weather  guaranteed  me  a  sea- 
son's rest,  but  here  's  the  claymore  again  !  Alas- 
dair,  Craignish,  Sir  Donald,  I  wisli  you  gentlemen 
would  set  the  summons  about  with  as  little  delay 
as  need  be.  We  have  no  time  for  any  display  of 
militant  science,  but  as  these  beacons  carry  their 


JOHN   SPLENDID  107 

tale  fast  we  may  easily  be  at  the  head  of  Glen 
Aora  before  the  enemy  is  down  Glenurchy." 

Sir  Donald,  who  was  the  more  elderly  of  the 
officers  his  lordship  addressed,  promised  a  muster 
of  five  hundred  men  in  three  hours'  time.  "  I  can 
have  a  crois-tara,"  he  said,  "  at  the  very  head  of 
Glen  Shira  in  an  hour." 

"You  may  save  yourself  the  trouble,"  said 
John  Splendid,  "  Glen  Shira 's  awake  by  this  time, 
for  the  watchers  have  been  in  the  hut  on  Ben 
Bhuidhe  since  ever  we  came  back  from  Lorn,  and 
they  are  in  league  with  other  watchers  at  the 
Gearron  town,  w^ho  will  have  the  alarm  miles  up 
the  Glen  by  now  if  I  make  no  mistake  about  the 
breed." 

By  this  time  a  servant  came  in  to  say  Sithean 
Sluaidhe  hill  on  Cowal  was  ablaze,  and  likewise 
the  hill  of  Ardno  above  the  Ardkinglas  lands. 

"The  alarm  will  be  over  Argile  in  two  hours," 
said  his  lordship.  "  We  're  grand  at  the  begin- 
nings of  things,"  and  as  he  spoke  he  was  pour- 
ing, with  a  steady  hand,  a  glass  of  wine  for  a 
woman  in  the  tremors.  "  I  wish  to  God  we  were 
better  at  the  endings,"  he  added  bitterly.  "  If  these 
Athole  and  Antrim  caterans  have  the  secret  of  our 
passes,  we  may  be  rats  in  a  trap  before  the  morn's 
morning." 

The  hall  emptied  quickly,  a  commotion  of  folks 
departing  rose  in  the  courtyard,  and  candle  and 
torch  moved  about.  Horses  put  over  the  bridge 
at  a  gallop,  striking  sparks  from  the  cobble-stones, 
swords  jingled  on  stirrups.     In  the  town,  a  piper's 


io8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

tune  hurriedly  lifted,  and  numerous  lights  danced 
to  the  windows  of  the  burghers.  John  Splendid, 
the  Marquis,  and  I  were  the  only  ones  finally  left 
in  the  hall,  and  the  Marquis  turned  to  me  with  a 
smile  — 

"  You  see  your  pledge  calls  for  redemption 
sooner  than  you  expected,  Elrigmore.  The  en- 
emy 's  not  far  from  Ben  Bhuidhe  now,  and  your 
sword  is  mine  by  the  contract." 

"Your  lordship  can  count  on  me  to  the  last 
ditch,"  I  cried ;  and  indeed  I  might  well  be  ready, 
for  was  not  the  menace  of  war  as  muckle  against 
my  own  hearth  as  against  his? 

"Our  plan,"  he  went  on,  "as  agreed  upon  at  a 
council  after  my  return  from  the  north,  was  to 
hold  all  above  Inneraora  in  simple  defence  while 
lowland  troops  took  the  invader  behind.  Mont- 
rose or  the  MacDonalds  can't  get  through  our 
passes." 

"  I  'm  not  cock-sure  of  that,  MacCailein,"  said 
Splendid.  "We're  here  in  the  bottom  of  an 
ashet;  there's  more  than  one  deserter  from  your 
tartan  on  the  outside  of  it,  and  once  they  get  on 
the  rim  they  have,  by  all  rules  strategic,  the  upper 
hand  of  us  in  some  degree.  I  never  had  much 
faith  (if  I  dare  make  so  free)  in  the  surety  of  our 
retreat  here.  It 's  an  old  notion  of  our  grandads 
that  we  could  bar  the  passes." 

"  So  we  can,  sir,  so  we  can  !  "  said  the  Marquis, 
nervously  picking  at  his  buttons  with  his  long 
white  fingers,  the  nails  vexatiously  polished  and 
shaped. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  109 

"Against  horse  and  artillery,  I  allow,  surely  not 
against  Gaelic  foot.  This  is  not  a  wee  foray  of 
broken  men,  but  an  attack  by  an  army  of  numbers. 
The  science  of  war  —  what  little  I  learned  of  it  in 
the  Low  Countries  with  gentlemen  esteemed  my 
betters  —  convinces  me  that  if  a  big  enough  horde 
fall  on  from  the  rim  of  our  ashet,  as  I  call  it,  they 
might  sweep  us  into  the  loch  like  rattons." 

I  doubt  MacCailein  Mor  heard  little  of  this 
uncheery  criticism,  for  he  was  looking  in  a  seem- 
ing blank  abstraction  out  of  the  end  window  at  the 
town  lights  increasing  in  number  as  the  minutes 
passed.  His  own  piper  in  the  close  behind  the 
buttery  had  tuned   up   and  into   the   gathering  — 

"  Bha  mi  air  banais  'am  bail'  Inneraora, 
Banais  bii  mhiosa  bha  riamh  air  afit-saoghal !  " 

I  felt  the  tune  stir  me  to  the  core,  and  MTver,  I 
could  see  by  the  twitch  of  his  face,  kindled  to  the 
old  call. 

"  Curse  them  !  "  cried  MacCailein.  "  Curse 
them  !  "  he  cried  in  the  Gaelic,  and  he  shook  a 
white  fist  foolishly  at  the  north;  "I'm  wanting 
but  peace  and  my  books.  I  keep  my  ambition  in 
leash,  and  still  and  on  they  must  be  snapping  like 
curs  at  Argile.  God's  name  !  and  I  "11  crush  them 
hke  ants  on  the  ant-heap." 

From  the  door  at  the  end  of  the  room,  as  he 
stormed,  a  little  bairn  toddled  in,  wearing  a  night- 
shirt, a  curly  gold-haired  boy  with  his  cheeks 
like  the  apple  for  hue,  the  sleep  he  had  risen  from 
still  heavy  on  his  eyes.     Seemingly  the  commotion 


no  JOHN   SPLENDID 

had  brought  him  from  his  bed,  and  up  he  now  ran,, 
and  his  httlc  arms  went  round  his  father's  knees. 
On  my  word  I  've  seldom  seen  a  man  more  vastly 
moved  than  was  Archibald,  Marquis  of  Argile. 
He  swallowed  his  spittle  as  if  it  were  wool,  and 
took  the  child  to  his  arms  awkwardly,  like  one  who 
has  none  of  the  handling  of  his  own  till  they  are 
grown  up,  and  I  could  see  the  tear  at  the  cheek  he 
laid  against  the  youth's  ruddy  hair. 

"Wild  men  coming,  dada?"  said  the  child,  not 
much  out  about  after  all. 

"  They  shan't  touch  my  little  Illeasbuig,"  whis- 
pered his  lordship,  kissing  him  on  the  mouth. 
Then  he  lifted  his  head  and  looked  hard  at  John 
Splendid.  "  I  think,"  he  said,  "  if  I  went  post- 
haste to  Edinburgh,  I  could  be  of  some  service  in 
advising  the  nature  and  route  of  the  harassing  on 
the  rear  of  Montrose.  Or  do  you  think  —  do  you 
think " 

He  ended  in  a  hesitancy,  flushing  a  little  at  the 
brow,  his  lips  weakening  at  the  corner. 

John  Splendid,  at  my  side,  gave  me  with  his 
knee  the  least  nudge  on  the  leg  next  him. 

"  Did  your  lordship  think  of  going  to  Edinburgh 
at  once?  "  he  asked,  with  an  odd  tone  in  his  voice, 
and  keeping  his  eyes  very  fixedly  on  a  window. 

"  If  it  was  judicious,  the  sooner  the  better,"  said 
the  Marquis,  nu/zling  his  face  in  the  soft  warmth 
of  the  child's  neck. 

Splendid  looked  helpless  for  a  bit,  and  then  took 
up  the  policy  that  I  learned  later  to  expect  from 
him  in   every  similar  case.      He  seemed  to  read 


JOHN   SPLENDID  iii 

(in  truth  it  was   easy  enough  ! ;    wliat  was   in  his 
master's  mind,  and  he  said,  ahnost  witli  gaiety  — 

"  The  best  thing  you  could  do,  my  lord.  I^e- 
yond  your  personal  encouragement  (and  a  Chief's 
aye  a  consoling  influence  on  the  field,  I  'U  never 
deny),  there  's  little  you  could  do  here  that  cannot, 
with  your  pardon,  be  fairly  well  done  by  Sir 
Donald  and  myself,  and  Elrigmore  here,  who  hav^e 
made  what  you  might  call  a  trade  of  tulzie  and 
brulzie." 

MacCailein  Mor  looked  uneasy  for  all  this  open 
assurance.  He  set  the  child  down  with  an  awk- 
ward kiss,  to  be  taken  away  by  a  servant  lass  who 
had  come  after  him. 

"Would  it  not  look  a  little  odd?"  he  said,  eye- 
ing us  keenly. 

"  Your  lordship  might  be  sending  a  trusty  mes- 
sage to  Edinburgh,"  I  said,  and  John  Splendid 
with  a  "  Pshaw  !  "  walked  to  the  window,  saying 
what  he  had  to  say  with  his  back  to  the  candle- 
light. 

"  There  's  not  a  man  out  there  but  would  botch 
the  whole  business  if  you  sent  him,"  he  said  ;  "  it 
must  be  his  lordship  or  nobody.  And  what's  to 
hinder  her  ladyship  and  the  children  going  too? 
Snugger  they  'd  be  by  far  in  Stirling  Lodge  than 
here,  Lll  warrant.  If  I  were  not  an  old  runt  of  a 
bachelor,  it  would  be  my  first  thought  to  give 
my  women   and  bairns   safety." 

MacCailein  flew  at  the  notion.  "  Just  so,  jus\ 
so,"  he  cried,  and  of  a  sudden  he  skipped  out  ol 
the  room. 


112  JOHN   SPLENDID 

John  Splendid  turned,  pushed  the  door  to  after 
the  nobleman,  and  in  a  soft  voice  broke  into  the 
most  terrible  torrent  of  bad  language  ever  I  heard 
(and  I  've  known  cavaliers  of  fortune  free  that 
way).  He  called  his  Marquis  everything  but  a 
man. 

"  Then  why  in  the  name  of  God  do  you  egg 
him  on  to  a  course  that  a  fool  could  read  the  pol- 
troonery of?  I  never  gave  MacCailein  Mor  credit 
for  being  a  coward  before,"  said  I. 

"  Coward  !  "  cried  Splendid.  "  It 's  no  cowardice 
but  selfishness  —  the  disease,  more  or  less,  of  us 
all.  Do  you  think  yon  gentleman  a  coward? 
Then  you  do  not  know  the  man,  I  saw  him  once, 
empty-handed,  in  the  forest,  face  the  white  stag  and 
beat  it  off  a  hunter  it  was  goring  to  death,  and  they 
say  he  never  blenched  when  the  bonnet  was  shot 
off  his  head  at  Drimtyne,  but  jested  with  a  '  Close 
on't;  a  nail-breadth  more,  and  Colin  was  heir  to 
an  earlhood  !  '  " 

"  I  'rn  sorry  to  think  the  worst  of  an  Argilc  and 
a  Campbell,  but  surely  his  place  is  here  now." 

"It  is,  I  admit;  and  I  egged  him  to  follow  his 
inclination  because  I  'm  a  fool  in  one  thing,  as 
you  '11  discover  anon,  because  it 's  easier  and  pleas- 
anter  to  convince  a  man  to  do  what  he  wants  to 
do  than  to  convince  him  the  way  he  would  avoid 
is  the  only  right  one." 

"It's  not  an  altogether  nice  quirk  of  the  char- 
acter," I  said  drily.  It  gave  me  something  of  a 
stroke  to  find  so  weak  a  bit  in  a  man  of  so  many 
notable  parts. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  113 

He  spunked  up  like  tinder. 

"  Do  you  call  me  a  liar?"  he  said,  with  a  face 
as  white  as  a  clout,  his  nostrils  stretching  in  his 
rage. 

"Liar!"  said  I,  "not  I!  It  would  be  an  ill 
time  to  do  it  with  our  common  enemy  at  the  door. 
A  lie  (as  I  take  it  in  my  own  Highland  fashion)  is 
the  untruth  told  for  cowardice  or  to  get  a  mean 
advantage  of  another;  your  way  with  MacCailein 
was  but  a  foolish  way  (also  Highland,  I  've  no- 
ticed) of  saving  yourself  the  trouble  of  spurring 
up  your  manhood  to  put  him  in  the   right." 

"  You  do  me  less  than  half  justice,"  said  Splen- 
did, the  blood  coming  back  to  his  face,  and  him 
smiling  again;  "I  allow  I'm  no  preacher.  If  a 
man  must  to  hell,  he  must,  his  own  gait.  The  only 
way  I  can  get  into  argument  with  him  about  the 
business  is  to  fly  in  a  fury.  If  I  let  my  temper 
up  I  would  call  MacCailein  coward  to  his  teeth, 
though  I  know  it's  not  his  character.  But  I've 
been  in  a  temper  with  my  cousin  before  now,  and 
I  ken  the  stuff  he  's  made  of;  he  gets  as  cold  as 
steel  the  hotter  I  get,  and  with  the  poorest  of 
causes  he  could  then  put  me  in  a  black  con- 
fusion   " 

"But  you -" 

"  Stop,  stop  !  let  me  finish  my  tale.  Do  you 
know  I  put  a  fair  face  on  the  black  business  to 
save  the  man  his  own  self-respect.  He  '11  know  him- 
self his  going  looks  bad  without  my  telling  him, 
and  I  would  at  least  leave  him  the  notion  that 
we  were  blind  to  his  weakness.     After  all  it 's  not 

8 


114  JOHN    SPLENDID 

nuicli  of  a  weakness  —  the  wish  to  save  a  wife  and 
children  from  danger.  Another  bookish  disease, 
I  admit;  their  over-much  study  has  deadened  the 
man  to  the  sense  of  the  becoming,  and  in  an  affair 
demanding  courage  he  acts  hke  a  woman,  thinking 
of  his  household  when  he  should  be  thinking  of  his 
clan.  My  only  consolation  is  that  after  all  (except 
for  the  look  of  the  thing)  his  leaving  us  Httle 
matters." 

I  thought  different  on  that  point,  and  I  proved 
right.  If  it  takes  short  time  to  send  a  fiery  cross 
about,  it  takes  shorter  yet  to  send  a  naughty 
rumour,  and  the  story  that  MacCailein  Mor  and 
his  folks  were  off  in  a  hurry  to  the  Lowlands  was 
round  the  greater  part  of  Argile  before  the  clans- 
men mustered  at  Inneraora.  The)^  never  mustered 
at  all,  indeed ;  for  the  chieftains  of  the  small  com- 
panies that  came  from  Glen  Finne  and  down  the 
country,  no  sooner  heard  that  the  Marquis  was 
off  than  they  took  the  road  back,  and  so  Montrose 
and  Colkitto  MacDonald  found  a  poltroon  and 
deserted  countryside  waiting  them. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  115 

CHAPTER   IX 

INVASION 

Eight  hours  after  the  beacon  kindled  on  Dun- 
chuach,  the  enemy  was  feehng  at  the  heart  of 
Argile. 

It  came  out  years  after,  that  one  Angus  Maca- 
lain,  a  Glencoe  man,  a  branded  robber  off  a 
respectable  Water-of-Duglas  family,  had  guided 
the  main  body  of  the  invaders  through  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Urchy  and  into  our  territory.  They 
came  on  in  three  bands,  Alasdair  MacDonald  and 
the  Captain  of  Clanranald  (as  they  called  John 
MacDonald,  the  beast  —  a  scurvy  knave!),  sepa- 
rating at  Accurach  at  the  forking  of  the  two  Glens, 
and  entering  both,  Montrose  himself  coming  on 
the  rear  as  a  support.  As  if  to  favour  the  people 
of  the  Glens,  a  thaw  came  that  day  with  rain  and 
mist  that  cloaked  them  largely  from  view  as  they 
ran  for  the  hills  to  shelter  in  the  shelling  bothies. 
The  ice,  as  I  rode  up  the  water-side,  home  to  Glen 
Shira  to  gather  some  men  and  dispose  my  father 
safely,  was  breaking  on  the  surface  of  the  loch 
and  roaring  up  on  the  shore  in  the  incoming  tide. 
It  came  piling  in  layers  in  the  bays  —  a  most  won- 
derful spectacle !  I  could  not  hear  my  horse's 
hooves  for  the  cracking  and  crushing  and  cannon- 
ade of  it  as  it  flowed  in  on  a  south  wind  to  the 


ii6  JOHN    SPLENDID 

front  of  the  Gcarran,  giving  the  long  curve  of  the 
land  an  appearance  new  and  terrible,  filled  as  it 
was  far  over  high-water  niark  with  monstrous 
blocks,  answering  with  groans  and  cries  to  every 
push  of  the  tide. 

I  found  the  Glen  wrapped  in  mist,  the  Gearran 
hamlet  empty  of  people,  Maam,  Kilblaan,  Stuch- 
goy,  and  Ben  Bhuidhe  presenting  every  aspect  of 
desolation.  A  weeping  rain  was  making  sodden 
all  about  my  father's  house  when  I  galloped  to  the 
door,  to  find  him  and  the  sgalag  the  only  ones 
left. 

The  old  man  was  bitter  on  the  business. 

"  Little  I  thought,"  said  he,  "  to  see  the  day 
when  Glen  Shira  would  turn  tail  on  an  enemy." 

"Where  are  they?"  I  asked,  speaking  of  our 
absent  followers  ;  but  indeed  I  might  have  saved 
the  question,  for  I  knew  before  he  told  me  they 
were  up  in  the  corries  between  the  mounts,  and  in 
the  caves  of  Glen  Finne. 

He  was  sitting  at  a  fire  that  was  down  to  its 
grey  ash,  a  mournful  figure  my  heart  was  vexed 
to  see.  Now  and  then  he  would  look  about  him, 
at  the  memorials  of  my  mother,  her  chair  and  her 
Irish  Bible  (the  first  in  the  parish),  and  a  posy  of 
withered  flowers  that  lay  on  a  bowl  on  a  shelf 
where  she  had  [)laced  them,  new  cut  and  fresh, 
the  day  she  took  to  her  deathbed.  Her  wheel, 
too,  stood  in  the  corner,  with  the  thread  snapped 
short  in  the  heck  —  a  hint,  I  many  times  thought, 
at  the  sundered  interests  of  life. 

"  I  suppose  we  must  be  going  with  the  rest,"  I 


JOHN   SPLENDID  117 

ventured;  "there's  small  sense  in  biding  here  to 
be  butchered." 

He  fell  in  a  rain  of  tears,  fearing  nor  death  nor 
hardship  I  knew,  but  vvae  at  the  abandonment  of 
his  home.  I  had  difficulty  in  getting  him  to  con- 
sent to  come  with  me,  but  at  last  I  gave  the  pros- 
pect of  safety  in  the  town  and  the  company  of 
friends  there  so  attractive  a  hue  that  he  con- 
sented. So  we  hid  a  few  things  under  a  bvuacJi 
or  overhanging  brae  beside  the  burn  behind  the 
house,  and  having  shut  all  the  doors  —  a  comical 
precaution  against  an  army,  it  struck  me  at  the 
time  —  we  rode  down  to  Inneraora,  to  the  town 
house  of  our  relative  Craignure. 

It  was  a  most  piteous  community,  crowded  in 
every  lane  and  pend  with  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren dreadful  of  the  worst.  All  day  the  people 
had  been  trooping  in  from  the  landward  parts,  fly- 
ing before  the  rumour  of  the  Athole  advance  down 
Cladich.  For  a  time  there  was  the  hope  that  the 
invaders  would  but  follow  the  old  Athole  custom 
and  plunder  as  they  went,  sparing  unarmed  men 
and  women  ;  but  this  hope  we  surrendered  when  a 
lad  came  from  Carnus  with  a  tale  of  two  old  men, 
who  were  weavers  there,  and  a  woman,  nailed  into 
their  huts  and  burned  to  death. 

Had  Inneraora  been  a  walled  town,  impreg- 
nable, say,  as  a  simple  Swabian  village  with  a  few 
sconces  and  redoubts,  and  a  few  pieces  of  cannon, 
we  old  stagers  would  have  counselled  the  holding 
of  it  against  all  comers;  but  it  was  innocently  open 
to  the   world,  its   back  windows  looking  into  the 


ii8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

fields,  its  through-going  wynds  and  closes  leading 
frankly  to  the  open  hcallacJi  or  pass. 

A  high  and  sounding  wind  had  risen  from  the 
south,  the  sea  got  in  a  tumult,  the  ice-blocks  ran 
like  sheep  before  it  to  the  Gearran  bay  and  the 
loch-head.  I  thought  afterwards  it  must  be  God's 
providence  that  opened  up  for  us  so  suddenly  a 
way  of  flight  from  this  lamentable  trap,  by  the 
open  water  now  free  from  shore  to  shore  in  front 
of  the  town.  Generalling  the  community  as  if  he 
was  a  marshal  of  brigade,  John  Splendid  showed 
me  the  first  of  his  manly  quality  in  his  preparation 
for  the  removal  of  the  women  and  children.  He 
bade  the  men  run  out  the  fishing  smacks,  the  wher- 
ries and  skiffs,  at  the  Cadger's  Quay,  and  moving 
about  that  frantic  people,  he  disposed  them  in 
their  several  places  on  the  crafts  that  were  to  carry 
them  over  the  three-mile  ferry  to  Cowal.  A  man 
born  to  enterprise  and  guidance,  ccrtes !  I  never 
saw  his  equal.  He  had  the  happy  word  for  all, 
the  magic  hint  of  hope,  a  sober  merriment  when 
needed,  sometimes  a  little  raillery  and  laughing, 
sometimes  (with  the  old)  a  farewell  in  the  ear. 
Even  the  better  gentry,  Sir  Donald  and  the  rest, 
took  a  second  place  in  the  management,  beholding 
in  this  poor  gentleman  the  human  heart  that  at  a 
pinch  is  better  than  authority  in  a  gold-braided 
coat. 

V>y  noon  we  had  every  l)airn  and  woman  (but 
for  one  woman  I  Ml  mention)  on  their  way  from 
the  shore,  poor  dears  !  tossing  on  the  turbulent 
sea,  the  women  weeping  bitterly  for  the  husbands 


JOHN   SPLENDID  119 

and  sons  they  left,  for  of  men  there  went  with 
them  but  the  oldsters,  able  to  guide  a  boat,  but 
poorly  equipped  for  battling  with  Irish  banditty. 
And  my  father  was  among  them,  in  the  kind  hands 
of  his  sgalag  and  kinswomen,  but  in  a  vague 
indifference  of  grief. 

A  curious  accident,  that  in  the  grace  of  God 
made  the  greatest  difference  on  my  after-life,  left 
among  them  that  found  no  place  in  the  boats  the 
daughter  of  Provost  Brown.  She  had  made  every 
preparation  to  go  with  her  father  and  mother,  and 
had  her  foot  on  the  beam  of  the  boat,  when  the 
old  woman  set  up  a  cry  for  an  oe  that  had  been 
forgot  in  the  confusion,  and  was  now,  likely,  crying 
in  the  solitude  of  the  backlands.  It  was  the  love- 
bairn  of  a  dead  mother,  brought  up  in  the  kindly 
Highland  fashion,  free  of  every  girnel  and  kail-pot. 
Away  skirted  Betty  up  the  causeway  of  the  Cad- 
ger's Quay,  and  in  among  the  lanes,  for  the  little 
one,  and  (I  learned  again)  she  found  her  playing 
well  content  among  puddled  snow,  chattering  to 
herself  in  the  loneliness  of  yon  war-menaced  town. 
And  she  had  but  snatched  her  up  to  seek  safety 
with  her  in  the  boats  when  the  full  tide  of  Colkitto's 
robbers  came  pelting  in  under  the  Arches.  They 
cut  her  off  from  all  access  to  the  boats  by  that  way, 
so  she  turned  and  made  for  the  other  end  of  the 
town,  hoping  to  hail  in  her  father's  skiff  when  he 
had  put  far  enough  off  shore  to  see  round  the 
point  and  into  the  second  bay. 

We  had  but  time  to  shout  her  apparent  project 
to  her  father,  when  we   found    ourselves  fighting 


I20  JOHN    SPLENDID 

hand  to  hand  against  the  Irish  gentry  in  trews. 
This  was  no  market-day  brawl,  but  a  stark  assault- 
at-arms.  All  in  the  sound  of  a  high  wind,  broken 
now  and  then  with  a  rain  blattering  even-down,  and 
soaking  through  tartan  and  clo-dubh,  we  at  it  for 
dear  life.  Of  us  Clan  Campbell  people,  gentrice 
and  commoners,  and  so  many  of  the  Lowland 
mechanics  of  the  place  as  were  left  behind,  there 
would  be  something  less  than  two  hundred,  for  the 
men  who  had  come  up  the  loch-side  to  the  sum- 
mon of  the  beacons  returned  the  way  they  came 
when  they  found  MacCailein  gone,  and  hurried  to 
the  saving  of  wife  and  bairn.  We  were  all  well 
armed  with  fusil  and  sword,  and  in  that  we  had 
some  advantage  of  the  caterans  bearing  down  on 
us;  for  they  had,  for  the  main  part,  but  rusty 
matchlocks,  pikes,  bill-hooks  —  even  bows  and 
arrows,  antique  enough  contrivance  for  a  time  of 
civilised  war!  But  they  had  hunger  and  hate  for 
their  backers,  good  guidance  in  their  own  savage 
fashion  from  MacDonald,  and  we  were  fighting  on 
a  half  heart,  a  body  never  trained  together,  and 
stupid  to  the  word  of  command. 

From  the  first,  John  took  the  head  of  our  poor 
defence.  Me  was  dninc-iiasail  enough,  and  he  had, 
notoriously,  the  skill  that  earned  him  the  honour^ 
even  over  myself  (in  some  degree),  and  certainly 
over  Sir  Donald. 

The  town-head  fronted  the  upper  bay,  and  be- 
tween it  and  the  grinding  ice  on  the  shore  lay  a 
broad  track  of  what  might  be  called  esplanade, 
presenting  ample  space  for  our  rencontre. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  I2i 

"  Gentlemen,"  cried  John,  picking  off  a  man 
with  the  first  shot  from  a  silver-butted  tag  he 
pulled  out  of  his  waist-belt  at  the  onset,  "  and  with 
your  leave,  Sir  Donald  (trusting  you  to  put  pluck 
in  these  Low  Country  shopkeepers),  it's  Inneraora 
or  Ifrinn  for  us  this  time.  Give  them  cold  steel, 
and  never  an  inch  of  arm-room  for  their  bills  !  " 

Forgotten  were  the  boats,  behind  lay  all  our 
loves  and  fortunes  —  was  ever  Highland  heart  but 
swelled  on  such  a  time?  Sturdy  black  and  hairy 
scamps  the  Irish  —  never  German  boor  so  inele- 
gant —  but  venomous  in  their  courage.  Score 
upon  score  of  them  ran  in  on  us  through  the 
Arches.  Our  lads  had  but  one  shot  from  the 
muskets,  then  into  them  with  the  dirk  and  sword. 

"  Montrose  !  Montrose  !  "  cried  the  enemy,  even 
when  the  blood  glucked  at  the  thrapple,  and  they 
twisted  to  the  pain  of  the  knife. 

"A  papist  dog!"  cried  Splendid,  hard  at  it  on 
my  right,  for  once  a  zealous  Protestant,  and  he 
was  whisking  around  him  his  broad  sword  like  a 
hazel  wand,  facing  half  a-dozen  Lochaber  axes. 
"  Cruachan  !  Cruachan  !  "  he  sang.  And  we  cried 
the  old  slogan  but  once,  for  time  pressed  and  wind 
was  dear. 

Sitting  cosy  in  a  tavern  with  a  friend  nowadays, 
listening  to  a  man  singing,  in  the  cheery  way  of 
taverns,  the  ditty  that  the  Lcckan  bard  made  upon 
this  little  spulzie,  I  could  weep  and  laugh  in  turns 
at  minding  of  yon  winter's  day.  In  the  hot  stress 
of  it  I  felt  but  the  ardour  that 's  under  all  men  who 
wear  tartan  —  less  a  hatred  of  the  men  I   thrust 


122  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  slashed  at  with  Sir  Claymore  than  a  zest  in 
the  busy  traffic,  and  something  of  a  pride  (God 
help  me!)  in  the  pretty  way  my  blade  dirled  on 
the  harn-pans  of  the  rascals.  There  was  one  trick 
of  the  sword  I  had  learned  off  an  old  sergeant  of 
pikes  in  Mackay's  Scots,  in  a  leisure  afternoon  in 
camp,  that  I  knew  was  alien  to  every  man  who 
used  the  targe  in  home  battles,  and  it  served  me 
like  a  Mull  wife's  charm.  They  might  be  sturdy, 
the  dogs,  valorous  too,  for  there  's  no  denying  the 
truth,  and  they  were  gleg,  gleg  with  the  target  in 
fending,  but,  man,  I  found  them  mighty  simple  to 
the  feint  and  lunge  of  Alasdair  Mor ! 

Listening,  as  I  say,  to  a  song  in  a  tavern,  T  'm 
sad  for  the  stout  fellows  of  our  tartan  who  fell 
that  day,  and  still  I  could  laugh  gaily  at  the  amaze 
of  the  ragged  corps  who  found  gentlemen  before 
them.  They  pricked  at  us,  for  all  their  natural 
ferocity,  with  something  like  apology  for  marring 
our  fine  clothes,  and  when  the  end  came,  and  we 
were  driven  back,  they  left  the  gentlemen  of  our 
band  to  retreat  by  the  pends  to  the  beechwood, 
and  gave  their  attention  to  the  main  body  of  our 
common  townsmen. 

We  had  edged.  Splendid  and  Sir  Donald  and  I, 
into  a  bit  of  green  behind  the  church,  and  we  held 
a  council  of  war  on  our  next  move. 

Three  weary  men,  the  rain  smirring  on  our 
sweating  faces,  there  we  were.  I  noticed  that  a 
trickle  of  blood  was  running  down  my  wrist,  and 
I  felt  at  the  same  time  a  beat  at  the  shoulder  that 
gave  the  explanation,  and  had  mind  that  a  fellow 


JOHN   SPLENDID  123 

in  the  Atholc  corps  had  fired  a  pistolct  point-blank 
at  me,  missing  me,  as  I  had  thought,  by  the  thick- 
ness of  my  doublet-sleeve. 

"  You  've  got  a  cut,"  said  Sir  Donald.  "  You 
have  a  face  like  the  clay." 

"  A  bit  of  the  skin  off,"  said  I,  unwilling  to  vex 
good  company. 

"  We  must  take  to  Eas-a-chosain  for  it,"  said 
Splendid,  his  eyes  flashing  wild  upon  the  scene, 
the  gristle  of  his  red  neck  throbbing. 

Smoke  was  among  the  haze  of  the  rain ;  from 
the  thatch  of  the  townhead  houses  the  wind  brought 
on  us  the  smell  of  burning  heather  and  brake  and 
fir-joist. 

"Here's  the  lamentable  end  of  town  Inner- 
aora !  "  said  John,  in  a  doleful  key. 

And  we  ran,  the  three  of  us,  up  the  Fisherland 
burn-side  to  the  wood  of  Creas  Dubh. 


124  JOHN   SPLENDID 

CHAPTER  X 

THE   FLIGHT   TO   THE   FOREST 

We  made  good  speed  up  the  burn-side,  through 
the  fields,  and  into  the  finest  forest  that  was  (or  is 
to  this  day,  perhaps)  in  all  the  wide  Highlands. 
I  speak  of  Creag  Dubh,  great  land  of  majestic 
trees,  home  of  the  red-deer,  rich  with  glades  car- 
peted with  the  juiciest  grass,  and  endowed  with 
a  cave  or  two  where  we  knew  we  were  safe  of  a 
sanctuary  if  it  came  to  the  worst,  and  the  Athole 
men  ran  at  our  heels.  It  welcomed  us  from  the 
rumour  of  battle  with  a  most  salving  peace. 
Under  the  high  fir  and  oak  we  walked  in  a  still 
and  scented  air,  aisles  lay  about  and  deep  recesses, 
the  wind  sang  in  the  tops  and  in  the  \'istas  of  the 
trees,  so  that  it  minded  one  of  Catholic  kirks  fre- 
quented otherwhere.  We  sped  up  by  the  quarries 
and  through  Eas-a-chosain  (that  little  glen  so  full 
of  fondest  memorials  for  all  that  have  loved  and 
wandered),  and  found  our  first  resting-place  in  a 
cunning  little  hold  on  an  eminence  looking  down 
on  the  road  that  ran  from  the  town  to  Coiilebhraid 
mines.  Below  us  the  hillside  dipped  three  or  four 
hundred  feet  in  a  sharp  slant  bushed  over  with 
young  daracJi  wood,  behind  us  hung  a  tremendous 
rock  that  few  standing  upon  would  think  had  a 
hollow  heart.     Here  was  our  refuge,  and  the  dry 


JOHN   SPLENDID  125 

• 

and  stoury  alleys  of  the  fir-wood  we  had  traversed 
gave  no  clue  of  our  track  to  them  that  might 
hunt  us. 

We  made  a  fire  whose  smoke  curled  out  at  the 
back  of  the  cave  into  a  linn  at  the  bottom  of  a  fall 
the  Fisherland  burn  has  here,  and  had  there  been 
any  to  see  the  reek  they  would  have  thought  it 
but  the  finer  spray  of  the  thawed  water  rising 
among  the  melting  ice-lances.  We  made,  too, 
couches  of  fir-branches  —  the  springiest  and  most 
wholesome  of  beds  in  lieu  of  heather  or  gall,  and 
laid  down  our  weariness  as  a  soldier  would  relin- 
quish his  knapsack,  after  John  Splendid  had  ban- 
daged my  wounded  shoulder. 

In  the  cave  of  Eas-a-chosain  we  lay  for  more 
days  than  I  kept  count  of,  I  immovable,  fevered 
with  my  wound,  Sir  Donald  my  nurse,  and  John 
Splendid  my  provider.  They  kept  keen  scrutiny 
on  the  road  below,  where  sometimes  they  could 
see  the  invaders  passing  in  bands  in  their  search 
for  scattered  townships  or  crofts. 

On  the  second  night  John  ventured  into  the 
edge  of  the  town  to  see  how  fared  Inneraora,  and 
to  seek  provand.  He  found  the  place  like  a  fiery 
cross — burned  to  char  at  the  ends,  and  only  the 
mid  of  it  —  the  solid  Tolbooth  and  the  gentle 
houses  —  left  to  hint  its  ancient  pregnancy.  A 
corps  of  Irish  had  it  in  charge  while  their  com- 
rades scoured  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  in  the 
dusk  John  had  an  easy  task  to  find  brandy  in  the 
cellars  of  Craignure  (the  invaders  never  thought 
of  seeking  a  cellar    for   anything  more   warming 


126  JOHN   SPLENDID 

tl'ian  peats),  a  boll  of  meal  in  handfuls  here  and 
there  among  the  meal-girncls  of  the  commoner 
houses  that  lay  open  to  the  night,  smelling  of  stale 
hearth-fires,  and  harried. 

To  get  fresh  meat  was  a  matter  even  easier, 
though  our  guns  we  dare  not  be  using,  for  there 
were  blue  hares  to  snare,  and  they  who  have  not 
taken  fingers  to  a  roasted  haunch  of  badger  har- 
ried out  of  his  hiding  with  a  club,  have  fine 
feeding  yet  to  try.  The  good  Gaelic  soldier  will 
eat,  swectl}%  crowdy  made  in  his  brogue  —  how 
much  better  off  were  we  with  the  stout  and  well- 
fired  oaten  cakes  that  this  Highland  gentleman 
made  on  the  flagstone  in  front  of  our  cave-fire  ! 

Never  had  a  wounded  warrior  a  more  rapid  heal- 
ing than  I.  "  Riiis;idh  an  i'o-g;JiiiilIac]i  air  an  ro- 
gJialar'' — -good  nursing  will  overcome  the  worst 
disease,  as  our  antique  proverb  says ;  and  I  had 
the  best  of  nursing  and  but  a  baggage-master's 
wound  after  all.  By  the  second  week  I  was  hale 
and  hearty.  We  were  not  uncomfortable  in  our 
forest  sanctuary ;  we  were  well  warmed  by  the  per- 
fumed roots  of  the  candle-fir;  John  Splendid's 
foraging  was  richer  than  we  had  on  many  a  cam- 
paign, and  a  pack  of  cards  lent  some  solace  to  the 
heaviest  of  our  hours.  To  our  imprisonment  we 
brought  even  a  touch  of  scholarship.  Sir  Donald 
was  a  student  of  Edinburgh  College  —  a  Master  of 
Arts — learned  in  the  moral  philosophies,  and  he 
and  I  discoursed  most  gravely  of  many  things 
that  had  small  harmony  with  our  situation  in  that 
savage,  foe-haunted  countryside. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  127 

To  these,  our  learned  discourses,  John  Splendid 
would  list  with  an  impatient  tolerance,  finding  in 
the  most  shrewd  saying  of  the  old  scholars  we 
dealt  with  but  a  paraphrase  of  some  Gaelic  pro- 
verb or  the  roundabout  expression  of  his  own  views 
on  life  and  mankind. 

"Tuts!  tuts!  "  he  would  cry,  "  I  think  the  dis- 
sensions of  you  two  arc  but  one  more  proof  of  the 
folly  of  book-learning.  Your  minds  are  not  your 
own,  but  the  patches  of  other  people's  bookish 
duds.  A  keen  eye,  a  custom  of  puzzling  every- 
thing to  its  cause,  a  trick  of  balancing  the  different 
motives  of  the  human  heart,  get  John  MTver  as 
close  on  the  bone  when  it  comes  to  the  bit.  Every 
one  of  the  scholars  you  are  talking  of  had  but  my 
own  chance  (maybe  less,  for  who  sees  more  than 
a  Cavalier  of  fortune?)  of  witnessing  the  real  true 
facts  of  life.  Did  they  live  to-day  poor  and  hardy, 
biting  short  at  an  oaten  bannock  to  make  it  go  the 
farther,  to-morrow  gorging  on  fat  venison  and  red 
rich  wine?  Did  they  parley  with  cunning  lawyers, 
cajole  the  boor,  act  the  valorous  on  a  misgiving 
heart,  guess  at  the  thought  of  man  or  woman 
oftener  than  we  do?  Did  ever  you  find  two  of 
them  agree  on  the  finer  points  of  their  science? 
Never  the  bit !  " 

We  forgave  him  his  heresies  for  the  sake  of  their 
wit,  that  I  but  poorly  chronicle,  and  he  sang  us 
wonderful  Gaelic  songs  that  had  all  of  that  same 
wisdom  he  bragged  of —  no  worse,  I  '11  allow,  than 
the  wisdom  of  print;  not  all  love-songs,  laments, 
or  such  naughty  ditties  as  you  will  hear  to-day, 


128  JOHN   SPLENDID 

but  the  poetry  of  the  more  cunning  bards.  Our 
cavern,  in  its  inner  recesses,  filled  with  the  low, 
rich  chiming  of  his  voice ;  his  face,  and  hands,  and 
whole  body  took  part  in  the  music.  In  those 
hours  his  character  borrowed  just  that  touch  of 
sincerity  it  was  in  want  of  at  ordinary  times,  for 
he  was  one  of  those  who  need  trial  and  trouble  to 
bring  out  their  better  parts. 

We  might  have  been  happy,  we  might  have  been 
content,  living  thus  in  our  cave  the  old  hunter's 
life;  walking  out  at  early  mornings  in  the  ad- 
jacent parts  of  the  wood  for  the  wherewithal 
to  breakfast;  rounding  in  the  day  with  longer 
journeys  in  the  moonlight,  when  the  shadows  were 
crowded  with  the  sounds  of  night  bird  and  beast; 
we  might  have  been  happy,  I  say,  but  for  the 
thinking  of  our  country's  tribulation.  Where  were 
our  friends  and  neighbours?  Who  were  yet  among 
the  living?  How  fared  our  kin  abroad  in  Cowal 
or  fled  farther  south  to  the  Rock  of  Dunbarton? 
These  restless  thoughts  came  oftener  to  me  than 
to  my  companions,  and  many  's  the  hour  I  spent 
in  woeful  pondering  in  the  alleys  of  the  wood. 

At  last  it  seemed  the  Irish  who  held  the  town 
were  in  a  sure  way  to  discover  our  hiding  if  we 
remained  any  longer  there.  Their  provender  was 
running  low,  though  they  had  driven  hundreds  of 
head  of  cattle  before  them  down  the  Glens ;  the 
weather  hardened  to  frost  again,  and  they  were 
pushing  deeper  into  the  wood  to  seek  for  bestial. 
It  was  full  of  animals  wc  dare  not  shoot,  but  which 
they  found  easy  to  the  bullet ;  red-deer  with  horns 


JOHN   SPLENDID  129 

—  even  at  three  years  old  —  stunted  to  knobs  by  a 
constant  life  in  the  shade  and  sequestration  of  the 
trees  they  threaded  their  lives  through,  or  dun- 
bellied  fallow-deer  unable  to  face  the  blasts  of  the 
exposed  hills,  light-coloured  yeld  hinds  and  horn- 
less "  heaviers  "  (or  winterers)  the  size  of  oxen. 
A  flock  or  two  of  wild  goat,  even,  lingered  on  the 
upper  slopes  towards  Ben  Bhrec,  and  they  were 
down  now  browsing  in  the  ditches  beside  the 
Marriage  Tree. 

We  could  see  little  companies  of  the  enemy 
come  closer  and  closer  on  our  retreat  each  day  — 
attracted  up  the  side  of  the  hill  from  the  road  by 
birds  and  beast  that  found  cover  under  the  young 
oaks. 

"We'll  have  to  be  moving  before  long,"  said  Sir 
Donald,  ruefully  looking  at  them  one  day — so 
close  at  hand  that  we  unwittingly  had  our  fingers 
round  the  dirk-hilts. 

He  had  said  the  true  word. 

It  was  the  very  next  day  that  an  Irishman,  bend- 
ing under  a  tush  to  lift  a  hedgehog  that  lay  sleep- 
ing its  winter  sleep  tightly  rolled  up  in  grass  and 
bracken,  caught  sight  of  the  narrow  entrance  to 
our  cave.  Our  eyes  were  on  him  at  the  time,  and 
when  he  came  closer  we  fell  back  into  the  rear  of 
our  dark  retreat,  thinking  he  might  not  push  his 
inquiry  further. 

For  once  John  Splendid's  cunning  forsook  him 
in  the  most  ludicrous  way.  "  I  could  have 
stabbed  him  where  he  stood,"  he  said  afterwards, 
"  for  I  was  in  the  shadow  at  his  elbow  ; "  but  he 

9 


130  JOHN   SPLENDID 

forgot  that  the  fire  whose  embers  glowed  red 
within  the  cave  would  betray  its  occupation  quite 
as  well  as  the  sight  of  its  occupants,  and  that  we 
were  discovered  only  struck  him  when  the  man, 
after  but  one  glance  in,  went  bounding  down  the 
hill  to  seek  for  aid  in  harrying  this  nest  of  ours. 

It  was  "  Bundle  and  Go  "  on  the  bagpipes.  We 
hurried  to  the  top  of  the  hill  and  along  the  ridge 
just  inside  the  edge  of  the  pines  in  the  direction  of 
the  Aora,  apprehensive  that  at  every  step  we 
should  fall  upon  bands  of  the  enemy;  and  if  we 
did  not  come  upon  themselves,  we  came  upon 
numerous  enough  signs  of  their  employment. 
Little  farms  lay  in  the  heart  of  the  forest  of  Creag 
Dubh,  —  or  rather  more  on  the  upper  edge  of  it, 
—  their  fields  scalloped  into  the  wood,  their  hills 
a  part  of  the  mountains  that  divide  Loch  Finne 
from  Lochow.  To-day  their  roof-trees  lay  hum- 
bled on  the  hearth,  the  gable-walls  stood  black 
and  eerie,  with  the  wind  piping  between  the  stones, 
the  cabars  or  joists  held  charred  ends  to  heaven, 
like  poor  mart}'rs  seeking  mercy.  Nothing  in  or 
about  these  once  happy  homesteads,  and  the  perti- 
nents and  pendicles  near  them,  had  been  spared 
by  the  robbers. 

But  we  had  no  time  for  weeping  over  such 
things  as  we  sped  on  our  way  along  the  hillside 
for  Dunchuach,  the  fort  we  knew  impregnable  and 
sure  to  have  safety  for  us  if  we  could  get  through 
the  cordon  that  was  bound  to  be  round  it. 

It  was  a  dull  damp  afternoon,  an  interlude  in  the 
frost,   chilly   and   raw   in  the  air,  the    forest   filled 


JOHN   SPLENDID  131 

with  the  odours  of  decaying  leaves  and  moss. 
A  greater  part  of  our  way  lay  below  beechwood 
neither  thick  nor  massive,  giving  no  protection 
from  the  rain  to  the  soil  below  it,  so  that  we 
walked  noisily  and  uncomfortably  in  a  mash  of 
rotten  vegetation.  We  were  the  length  of  the 
Cherry  Park,  moving  warily,  before  our  first  check 
came.  Here,  if  possible,  it  were  better  we  should 
leave  the  wood  and  cut  across  the  mouth  of  the  Glen 
to  Dunchuach  on  the  other  side.  But  there  was  no 
cover  to  speak  of  in  that  case.  The  river  Aora, 
plopping  and  crying  on  its  hurried  way  down,  had 
to  be  crossed,  if  at  all,  by  a  wooden  bridge,  cut  at 
the  parapets  in  the  most  humorous  and  useless 
way  in  embrasures,  every  embrasure  flanked  by 
port-holes  for  musketry  —  a  laughable  pretence 
about  an  edifice  in  itself  no  stronger  against 
powder  than  a  child's  toy. 

On  the  very  lowest  edges  of  the  wood,  in  the 
shade  of  a  thick  plump  of  beech,  strewed  gener- 
ously about  the  foot  by  old  bushes  of  whin  and 
bramble,  we  lay  at  last  studying  the  open  country 
before  us,  and  wondering  how  we  should  win  across 
it  to  the  friendly  shelter  of  Dunchuach.  Smoke 
was  rising  from  every  chimney  in  the  castle,  which, 
with  its  moat  and  guns,  and  its  secret  underground 
passage  to  the  seashore,  was  safe  against  surprises 
or  attacks  through  all  this  disastrous  Antrim  occu- 
pation. But  an  entrance  to  the  castle  was  beyond 
us;  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  Dunchuach,  and 
it  cheered  us  wonderfully  too,  that  from  the  fort 
there    floated    a    little    stream    of    domestic    reek, 


132  JOHN    SPLENDID 

white-blue  against  the  leaden  grey  of  the  unsettled 
sky. 

"  Here  we  are,  dears,  and  yonder  would  we  be," 
said  John,  digging  herb-roots  with  his  knife  and 
chewing  them  in  an  abstraction  of  hunger,  for  we 
had  been  disturbed  at  a  meal  just  begun  to. 

I  could  see  a  man  here  and  there  between  us 
and  the  lime-kiln  we  must  pass  on  our  way  up 
Dunchuach.  I  confessed  myself  in  as  black  a 
quandary  as  ever  man  experienced.  As  for  Sir 
Donald  —  good  old  soul !  —  he  was  now,  as  always, 
unable  to  come  to  any  conclusion  except  such  as 
John  Splendid  helped  him  to. 

We  lay,  as  I  say,  in  the  plump,  each  of  us  under 
his  bush,  and  the  whole  of  us  overhung  a  foot  or 
two  by  a  brow  of  land  bound  together  by  the 
spreading  beech-roots.  To  any  one  standing  on 
the  brnacli  we  were  invisible,  but  a  step  or  two 
would  bring  him  round  to  the  foot  of  our  retreat 
and  disclose  the  three  of  us. 

The  hours  passed,  with  us  ensconced  there  — 
every  hour  the  length  of  a  day  to  our  impatience 
and  hunger;  but  still  the  way  before  was  barred, 
for  the  coming  and  going  of  people  in  the  valley 
was  unceasing.  We  had  talked  at  first  eagerly  in 
whispers,  but  at  last  grew  tired  of  such  unnatural 
discourse,  and  began  to  sleep  in  snatches  for  sheer 
lack  of  anything  else  to  do.  It  seemed  we  were 
prisoned  there  till  nightfall  at  least,  if  the  Athole 
man  who  found  our  cave  did  not  track  us  to  our 
hiding. 

I  lay  on  the  right  of  my  two  friends,  a  little 


JOHN   SPLENDID  133 

more  awake,  perhaps,  than  they,  and  so  I  was  the 
first  to  perceive  a  httle  shaking  of  the  soil,  and 
knew  that  some  one  was  coming  down  upon  our 
hiding.  We  lay  tense,  our  breathing  caught  at  the 
chest,  imposing  on  ourselves  a  stillness  that  swelled 
the  noises  of  nature  round  about  us  —  the  wind, 
the  river,  the  distant  call  of  the  crows — to  a  most 
clamorous  and  appalling  degree. 

We  could  hear  our  visitor  breathing  as  he  moved 
about  cautiously  on  the  stunted  grass  above  us, 
and  so  certain  seemed  discovery  that  we  had  our 
little  black  knives  lying  naked  along  our  wrists. 

The  suspense  parched  me  at  the  throat  till  I 
thought  the  rasping  of  my  tongue  on  the  roof  of 
my  palate  seemed  like  the  scraping  of  a  heath- 
brush  in  a  wooden  churn.  Unseen  we  were,  we 
knew ;  but  it  was  patent  that  the  man  above  us 
would  be  round  in  front  of  us  at  any  moment,  and 
there  we  were  to  his  plain  eyesight !  He  was 
within  three  yards  of  a  steel  death,  even  had  he 
been  Fin  MacCoul;  but  the  bank  he  was  stand- 
ing on  —  or  lying  on,  as  wc  learned  again  —  crum- 
bled at  the  edge  and  threw  him  among  us  in  a 
different  fashion  from  that  we  had  looked  for. 

My  fingers  were  on  his  throat  before  I  saw  that 
we  had  for  our  visitor  none  other  than  young  Mac- 
Lachlan. 

He  had  his  sgian  diihJi  almost  at  my  stomach 
before  our  mutual  recognition  saved  the  situation. 

"  You  're  a  great  stranger,"  said  John  Splendid, 
with  a  fine  pretence  at  more  coolness  than  he  felt, 
*'  and   yet  I  thought  Cowal  side  would  be  more 


134  JOHN   SPLENDID 

to  your  fancy  than   real  Argilc   in   this  vexatious 
time." 

"  I  wish  to  God  I  was  on  Cowal  side  now !  "  said 
the  lad,  ruefully.  "  At  this  minute  I  would  n't  give 
a  finger-length  of  the  Loch  Eck  road  for  the  whole 
of  this  rich  strath." 

"  I  don't  suppose  you  were  forced  over  here,"  I 
commented. 

"As  well  here  in  one  way  as  another,"  he  said. 
"  I  suppose  you  are  unaware  that  Montrose  and 
MacDonald  have  overrun  the  whole  country. 
They  have  sacked  and  burned  the  greater  part  of 
Cowal ;  they  have  gone  down  as  far  as  Knapdale. 
I  could  have  been  in  safety  with  my  own  people 
(and  the  bulk  of  your  Inneraora  people  too)  by 
going  to  Bute  or  Dunbarton,  but  I  could  hardly 
do  that  with  my  kinsfolk  still  hereabouts  in  dif- 
ficulties." 

"  Where,  where? "  I  cried;  "and  who  do  you 
mean?  " 

He  coughed  in  a  sort  of  confusion,  I  could  see, 
and  said  he  spoke  of  the  Provost  and  his  family. 

"  Rut  the  Provost 's  gone,  man  !  "  said  I,  "  and 
his  family  too." 

"  My  cousin  Betty  is  not  gone  among  them," 
said  he  ;  "  she  's  cither  in  the  castle  yonder  —  and 
I  hope  to  God  she  is  —  or  a  prisoner  to  the  Mac- 
Donalds,  or " 

"  The  Worst  Curse  on  their  tribe  !  "  cried  John 
Splendid,  in  a  fervour. 

Betty,  it  seemed,  from  a  narrative  that  gave  me 
a  stound  of  anguish,  had  never  managed  to  join  her 


JOHN   SPLENDID  135 

father  in  the  boats  going  over  to  Cowal  the  day 
the  MacDonalds  attacked  the  town.  Terror  had 
seemingly  sent  her,  carrying  the  child,  away  be- 
hind the  town ;  for  though  her  father  and  others 
had  put  ashore  again  at  the  south  bay,  they  could 
not  see  her,  and  she  was  still  unfound  when  the 
triumph  of  the  invader  made  flight  needful 
again. 

"  Her  father  would  have  bided  too,"  said  Mac- 
Lachlan,  "  but  that  he  had  reason  to  believe  she 
found  the  safety  of  the  castle.  Lying  off  the  quay 
when  the  fight  was  on,  some  of  the  people  in  the 
other  boats  saw  a  woman  with  a  bundle  run  up 
the  riverside  to  the  back  of  the  castle  garden,  and 
there  was  still  time  to  get  over  the  draw-brig 
then." 

MacLachlan  himself  had  come  round  by  the 
head  of  the  loch,  and  by  going  through  the  Bar- 
rabhreac  wood  and  over  the  shoulder  of  Duntorval, 
had  taken  Inneraora  on  the  rear  flank.  He  had 
lived  several  days  in  a  bothy  above  the  Beannan 
on  High  Balantyre,  and,  like  ourselves,  depended 
on  his  foraging  upon  the  night  and  the  luck  of  the 
woods. 

We  lay  among  the  whins  and  bramble  Ondis- 
turbed  till  the  dusk  came  on.  The  rain  had 
stopped,  a  few  stars  sedately  decked  the  sky. 
Bursts  of  laughing,  the  cries  of  comrades,  bits  of 
song,  came  on  the  air  from  the  town  where  the 
Irish  caroused.  At  last  between  us  and  Dunchu- 
ach  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  to  prevent  us  ven- 
turing on  if  the  bridge  was  clear.   '' 


136  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  If  not,"  said  Sir  Donald,  "  here  's  a  doomed 
old  man,  for  I  know  no  swimming." 

"There  's  Edinburgh  for  you,  and  a  gentleman's 
education  !  "  said  John  Splendid,  with  a  dry  laugh  ; 
and  he  added,  "  but  I  daresay  I  could  do  the  swim- 
ming for  the  both  of  us,  Sir  Donald.  I  have  car- 
ried my  accoutrements  dry  over  a  German  river 
ere  now,  and  I  think  I  could  convey  you  safe  over 
yon  bit  burn  even  if  it  were  not  so  shallow  above 
the  bridge  as  I  expect  it  is  after  these  long 
frosts." 

"  I  would  sooner  force  the  bridge  if  ten  men 
held  it,"  said  MacLachlan.  "  I  have  a  Highland 
hatred  of  the  running  stream,  and  small  notion  to 
sleep  a  night  in  wet  tartan." 

John  looked  at  the  young  fellow  with  a  struggle 
for  tolerance.  "  Well,  well,"  he  said  ;  "  we  ha\'e 
all  a  touch  of  the  fop  in  our  youth," 

"True  enough,  you're  not  so  young  as  you 
were  once,"  put  in  MacLachlan,  with  a  sly  laugh. 

"I'm  twenty  at  the  heart,"  cried  John,  —  "at 
the  heart,  man,  —  and  do  my  looks  make  me  more 
than  twice  that  age?  I  can  sing  you,  or  run  you, 
or  dance  you.  What  I  thought  was  that  at  your 
age  I  was  dandified  too  about  my  clothing.  I  '11 
give  you  the  benefit  of  believing  that  it 's  not  the 
small  discomfort  of  a  journey  in  wet  tartan  you 
vex  yourself  over.  Have  we  not  —  we  old  cam- 
paigners of  Lumsden's^ — soaked  our  plaids  in  the 
running  rivers  of  Low  Germanic,  and  rolled  them 
round  us  at  night  to  make  our  hides  the  warmer, 
our  sleep  the  snugger?     Oh,  the  old  days!     Oh, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  137 

the  stout  days !  God's  name,  but  I  ken  one 
man  who  wearies  of  these  tame  and  comfortable 
times !  " 

"  Whether  or  not,"  said  Sir  Donald,  anxious  to 
be  on,  "  I  wish  the  top  of  Dunchuach  was  under 
our  brogues." 

^'Allans,  Dies  amis,  then,"  said  John,  and  out  we 
set. 

Out  we  went,  and  we  sped  swiftly  down  to  the 
bridge,  feeling  a  sense  of  safety  in  the  dark  and  the 
sound  of  the  water  that  mourned  in  a  hollow  way 
under  the  wooden  cabars.  There  was  no  sentinel, 
and  we  crossed  dry  and  safely.  On  the  other  side, 
the  fields,  broken  here  and  there  by  dry-stone 
dykes,  a  ditch  or  two,  and  one  long  thicket  of 
shrubs,  rose  in  a  gentle  ascent  to  the  lime-kiln. 
We  knew  every  foot  of  the  way  as  't  were  in  our 
own  pockets,  and  had  small  difficulty  in  pushing 
on  in  the  dark.  The  night,  beyond  the  kiln  and 
its  foreign  trees,  was  clamorous  with  the  call  of 
white-horned  owls,  sounding  so  human  sometimes 
that  it  sent  the  heart  vaulting  and  brought  us  to 
pause  in  a  flurried  cluster  on  the  path  that  we 
followed  closely  as  it  twisted  up  the  hill. 

However,  we  were  in  luck's  way  for  once.  Never 
a  creature  challenged  our  progress  until  we  landed 
at  the  north  wall  of  the  fort,  and  crouching  in  the 
rotten  brake,  cried,  "  Gate,  oh  !  "  to  the  occupants. 

A  stir  got  up  within;  a  torch  flared  on  the  wall, 
and  a  voice  asked  our  tartan  and  business. 

"  Is  that  you,  Para  Mor?"  cried  John  Splendid. 
"  It's  a  time  for  short  ceremony.     Here  are  three 


138  JOHN    SPLENDID 

or  four  of  your  closest  friends  terribly  keen  to  see 
the  inside  of  a  wall." 

"  Barbreck,  is't?"  cried  Para  Mor,  holding  the 
flambeau  over  his  head  that  he  might  look  down 
on  us. 

"Who's  that  with  the  red  tartan?"  he  asked, 
speaking  of  MacLachlan,  whose  garments  shone 
garish  in  the  light  beside  our  dull  Campbell  country 
war-cloth. 

"  Condemn  your  parley,  Para  Mor,"  cried  Sir 
Donald;  "it's  young  MacLachlan,  —  open  your 
doors !  " 

And  the  gate  in  a  little  swung  on  its  hinges  to 
pass  us  in. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  139 

CHAPTER  XI 

ON   BENS   OF  WAR 

This  mount  of  Dunchuach,  on  which  we  now 
found  ourselves  ensconced,  rises  in  a  cone  shape 
to  a  height  of  about  eight  hundred  feet,  its  bottom 
being  but  a  matter  of  a  quarter-mile  from  the 
castle  door.  It  is  wooded  to  the  very  nose,  almost, 
except  for  the  precipitous  sgoriiach  or  scaur,  that, 
seen  from  a  distance,  looks  like  a  red  wound  on 
the  face  of  it.  The  fort,  a  square  tower  of  ex- 
traordinarily stout  masonry,  with  an  eminent  roof, 
had  a  sconce  with  escarpment  round  it,  placed  on 
the  very  edge  of  the  summit.  Immediately  behind 
Dunchuach  is  Duntorvil,  its  twin  peak,  that  at  less 
distance  than  a  shout  will  carry,  lifts  a  hundred 
feet  higher  on  the  north.  The  two  hills  make, 
indeed,  but  one,  in  a  manner  of  talking,  except  for 
this  hundred  feet  of  a  hollow  worn  by  a  burn  lost 
midway  in  long  sour  grasses.  It  had  always  been 
a  surprise  to  me  that  Argile's  grandfather,  when 
he  set  the  fort  on  the  hill,  chose  the  lower  of  the 
two  eminences,  contrary  to  all  good  guidance  of 
war.  But  if  he  had  not  full  dominition  on  Dun- 
chuach, he  had,  at  any  rate,  a  fine  prospect.  I 
think,  in  all  my  time,  I  have  never  witnessed  a 
more  pleasing  scene  than  ever  presents  itself  in 
clear  weather  from  the  brow  of  this  peak.     Loch 


140  JOHN    SPLENDID 

Finne  —  less,  as  the  whim  of  the  fancy  might  have 
it,  a  loch  than  a  noble  river  —  runs  south  in  a 
placid  band ;  the  Cowal  hills  rise  high  on  the  left, 
bare  but  of  heather  and  gall  ;  in  front  Argile, 
green  with  the  forest  of  Creag  Dubh,  where  the 
stag  bays  in  the  gloaming.  For  miles  behind  the 
town  and  castle  lies  a  plain,  flat  and  rich,  growing 
the  most  lush  crops.  The  town  itself,  that  one 
could  almost  throw  a  stone  down  on,  looks  like 
a  child's  toy.  And  away  to  the  north  and  west 
the  abundant  hills,  rising  higher  and  higher  — 
sprinkled  here  and  there  with  spots  of  moor 
loch. 

The  fort  this  night  was  held  by  a  hundred  men 
of  the  body  called  the  Marquis  his  Halberdiers,  a 
corps  of  antique  heroes  whose  weapon  for  ordi- 
nary was  the  Lochaber  tiiagh  or  axe,  a  pretty  in- 
strument on  a  parade  of  state,  but  small  use,  even 
at  close  quarters,  with  an  enemy.  They  had  skill 
of  artillery,  however,  and  few  of  them  but  had  a 
Highlander's  training  in  the  use  of  the  broad- 
sword. Besides  two  culverins  mounted  on  the 
less  precipitous  side  of  the  hill  —  which  was  the 
way  we  came  —  they  had  smaller  firearms  in 
galore  on  the  sconce,  and  many  kegs  of  powder 
disposed  in  a  recess  or  magazine  at  the  base  of 
the  tower.  To  the  east  of  the  tower  itself,  and 
within  the  wall  of  the  fort  (where  now  is  but  an 
old  haw-tree),  was  a  governor's  house  perched  on 
the  sheer  lip  of  the  hill,  so  that,  looking  out  at  its 
window,  one  could  spit  farther  than  a  musket-ball 
would  carry  on  the  level. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  141 

We  were  no  sooner  in  than  MacLachlan  was 
scenting  round  and  into  this  Httlc  house.  He 
came  out  crestfallen,  and  went  over  to  the  group 
of  halberdiers,  who  were  noisily  telling  their  story 
to  myself  and  Splendid. 

"Are  no  people  here  but  men?"  he  asked  Para 
Mor,  who  was  sergeant  of  the  company,  and  to  all 
appearance  in  charge  of  the  place. 

He  caught  me  looking  at  him  in  some  wonder, 
and  felt  bound,  seemingly,  to  explain  himself. 

"  I  had  half  the  hope,"  said  he,  "  that  my  cousin 
had  come  here ;  but  she  '11  be  in  the  castle  after 
all,  as  her  father  thought." 

John  Splendid  gave  me  the  pucker  of  an  eye 
and  a  line  of  irony  about  the  edge  of  his  lips,  that 
set  my  blood  boiling.  I  was  a  foolish  and  un- 
governed  creature  in  those  days  of  no-grace.  I 
cried  in  my  English,  "  One  would  think  you  had  a 
goodman's  interest  in  this  bit  girl." 

MacLachlan  leered  at  me  with  a  most  devilish 
light  in  his  black  eyes,  and  said,  "  Well,  well,  I 
might  have  even  more.  Marriage,  they  say, 
makes  the  sweetest  woman  wersh.  But  I  hope 
you  '11  not  grudge  me,  my  dear  I'^lrigmore,  some 
anxiety  about  my  own  relatives." 

The  fellow  was  right  enough  (that  was  the  worst 
of  it),  for  a  cousin  's  a  cousin  in  the  friendly  North  ; 
but  I  found  myself  for  the  second  time  since  I 
came  home  grudging  him  the  kinship  to  the  Pro- 
vost of  Inneraora's  daughter. 

That  little  tirravee  passed,  and  we  were  soon 
heartily   employed   on  a  supper   that   had  to  do 


142  JOHN   SPLENDID 

duty  for  two  meals.  We  took  it  at  a  rough  table 
in  the  tower,  lighted  by  a  flambeau,  that  sent  sparks 
flying  like  pigeons,  into  the  sombre  height  of  the 
building,  which  tapered  high  ov^erhead  as  a  lime- 
kiln upside  down.  From  this  retreat  we  could  see 
the  proof  of  knavery  in  the  villages  below.  Far 
down  on  Knapdale,  and  back  in  the  recesses  of 
Lochow,  were  burning  homes,  to  judge  from  the 
blotched  sky. 

Dunchuach  had  never  yet  been  attacked,  but 
that  was  an  experience  expected  at  any  hour,  and 
its  holders  were  ready  for  it.  They  had  disposed 
their  guns  round  the  wall  in  such  a  way  as  to  com- 
mand the  whole  gut  between  the  hills,  and  conse- 
quently the  path  up  from  the  Glens.  The  town 
side  of  the  fort  wall,  and  the  east  side,  being  on 
the  sheer  face  (almost)  of  the  rock,  called  for  no 
artillery. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  the  second  day  there 
that  our  defence  was  put  to  the  test  by  a  regi- 
ment of  combined  Irish  and  Athole  men.  The 
day  was  misty,  with  the  frost  in  a  hesitancy,  a  raw 
gowsty  air  sweeping  o\'er  the  hills.  Para  Mor, 
standing  on  the  little  north  bastion  or  ravelin,  as 
his  post  of  sergeant  ahva}'s  demanded,  had  been 
crooning  a  ditt\'and  carving  a  scroll  wuth  his  hunt- 
ing-knife on  a  crook  he  would  maybe  use  when  he 
got  back  to  the  tack  where  his  home  was  in  ashes 
and  his  cattle  were  far  to  seek,  when  he  heard  a 
crackle  of  bushes  at  the  edg'e  of  the  wood  that 
almost  reached  the  hill-top,  but  falls  short  for  lack 
of  shelter  from  the   sinister  wind.     In   a   second   a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  143 

couple  of  scouts  in  dirty  red  and  green  tartans, 
with,  fcaldags  or  pleatless  kilts  on  them  instead  of 
the  better  cldiSS  philabeg,  crept  cannily  out  into  the 
open,  unsuspicious  that  their  position  could  be 
seen  from  the  fort. 

Para  Mor  stopped  his  song,  projected  his  fire- 
lock over  the  wall  as  he  ducked  his  body  behind 
it  —  all  but  an  eye  and  shoulder  —  and  with  a  hairy 
cheek  against  the  stock,  took  aim  at  the  foremost. 
The  crack  of  the  musket  sounded  odd  and  moist 
in  the  mist,  failing  away  in  a  dismal  slam  that 
carried  but  a  short  distance,  but  it  was  enough 
to  rouse  Dunchuach. 

We  took  the  wall  as  we  stood,  —  myself,  I  re- 
member me,  in  my  kilt,  with  no  jacket,  and  my 
shirt-sleeves  rolled  up  to  the  shoulder;  for  I  had 
been  putting  the  stone,  a  pleasant  Highland  pas- 
time, with  John  Splendid,  who  was  similarly  dis- 
accoutred. 

"All  the  better  for  business,"  said  he,  though 
the  raw  wind,  as  we  lined  the  wall,  cut  like  sharp 
steel. 

Para  Mor's  unfortunate  gentleman  was  the  only 
living  person  to  see  when  we  looked  into  the  gut, 
and  he  was  too  little  that  way  to  say  much  about. 
Para  had  fired  for  the  head,  but  struck  lower,  so 
that  the  scout  writhed  to  his  end  with  a  red-hot 
coal  among  his  last  morning's  viands. 

Long  after,  it  w'ould  come  back  to  me,  the  odd- 
ity of  that  spectacle  in  the  hollow  —  a  man  in  a 
red  fcaldag,  with  his  hide-covered  buckler  gro- 
tesquely flailing  the  grass,  he,  in  the  Gaelic  custom, 


144  JOHN   SPLENDID 

making  a  great  moan  about  liis  end,  and  a  pair  of 
bickering  rooks  cawing  away  heartily  as  if  it  was 
no  more  than  a  sheep  in  the  throes  of  braxy. 

After  a  Httle  the  moan  of  the  MacDonald 
stopped,  the  crows  slanted  down  to  the  loch-side, 
stillness  came  over  the  place.  We  talked  in  whis- 
pers, sped  about  the  walls  on  the  tiptoes  of  our 
brogues,  and  peered  wonderingly  down  to  the  edge 
of  the  wood.  Long  we  waited  and  wearily,  and 
by-and-by  who  came  out  high  on  the  shoulder  of 
Duntorvil  but  a  band  of  the  enemy,  marching  in 
good  order  for  the  summit  of  that  paramount 
peak  ? 

"  I  hope  to  God  they  have  no  large  pieces  with 
them  yonder,"  said  John ;  "  for  they  '11  have  a 
coign  there  to  give  us  trouble  if  once  they  get 
mother  of  muskets   in  train." 

But,  fortunately  for  us,  no  artillery  ever  came  to 
Duntorvil. 

Fully  two  hundred  of  the  enemy  massed  on  the 
hill,  commanded  by  a  squat  officer  in  brceks  and 
wearing  a  peruke  Ajiglict',  that  went  oddly  with  his 
tartan  plaid.  He  was  the  Master  of  Clanranald,  we 
learned  anon,  a  cunning  person,  whose  aim  was  to 
avail  himself  of  the  impetuousness  of  the  kilts  he 
had  in  his  corps.  Gaels  on  the  attack,  as  he  knew, 
are  omnipotent  as  God's  thunderbolts;  give  them 
a  running  start  at  a  foe,  with  no  waiting,  and  they 
might  carry  the  gates  of  hell  against  the  Worst 
One  and  all  his  clan  ;  on  a  standing  defence  where 
coolness  and  discipline  are  wanted,  they  have  less 
s])lendid  virtues.     Clanranald  was  well   aware  that 


JOHN    SPLENDID  145 

to  take  his  regiment  all  into  the  hollow  where  his 
scout  was  stiffening  was  not  only  to  expose  them 
to  the  fire  of  the  fort  without  giving  them  any 
chance  of  quick  reply,  but  to  begin  the  siege  off 
anything  but  the  bounding  shoe-sole  the  High- 
lander has  the  natural  genius  for.  What  he 
devised  was  to  try  musketry  at  long  range  (and,  to 
shorten  my  talc,  that  failed),  then  charge  down  the 
one  summit,  over  the  rushy  gut,  and  up  the  side  of 
Dunchuach,  disconcerting  our  aim  and  bringing 
his  men  in  on  their  courageous  heat. 

We  ran  back  our  pieces  through  the  gorge  of 
the  bastions,  wheeled  them  in  on  the  terre-plein 
back  from  the  wall,  and  cocked  them  higher  on 
their  trunnions  to  get  them  in  train  for  the  oppo- 
site peak. 

"  Boom  !  "  went  the  first  gun,  and  a  bit  of  brown 
earth  spat  up  to  the  left  of  the  enemy,  low  by  a 
dozen  paces. 

A  silly  patter  of  poor  musketry  made  answer, 
but  their  bullets  might  as  well  have  been  aimed  at 
snipe  for  all  the  difference  it  made  to  us;  they 
came  short  or  spattered  against  our  wall.  We 
could  hear  the  shouts  of  the  foe,  and  saw  their 
confusion  as  our  third  gun  sent  its  message  into 
the  very  heart  of  them. 

Then  they  charged  Dunchuach. 

Our  artillery  lost  its  value,  and  we  met  them 
with  fusil  and  caliver. 

They  came  on  in  a  sort  of  echelon  of  four  com- 
panies, close  ordered,  and  not  as  a  more  skilly 
commander  would    make   them,  and    the   leading 


146  JOHN   SPLENDID 

company  took  tlic  right.  The  rushy  grass  met 
them  with  a  swish  as  they  bounded  over  it  hke 
roebucks,  so  fast  that  our  few  score  of  muskets 
made  no  impression  on  them  until  they  were 
climbing  up  the  steep  brae  that  led  to  our 
walls. 

Over  a  man  in  a  minority,  waiting,  no  matter 
how  well  ensconced,  the  onslaught  of  numbers 
carried  on  the  wings  of  hate  there  comes  a  strange 
feeling  —  I'll  never  deny  it  —  a  sort  of  qualm  at 
the  pit  of  the  stomach,  a  notion  to  cry  " 'Cavi ! " 
and  turn  atail  disgraceful.  I  felt  it  but  for  a 
second,  and  then  I  took  to  my  old  practice  of 
making  a  personal  foe  of  one  particular  man  in 
front  of  me.  This  time  I  chose  a  lieutenant  or 
sergeant  of  the  MacDonalds  (by  his  tartan),  a 
tall,  lean  rascal,  clean  shaved,  in  trews  and  a  tight- 
fitting  cota  gcarr  or  short  coat,  with  an  otter-skin 
cap  on  his  head,  the  otter-tail  still  attached  and 
dangling  behind  like  a  Lovvlandcr's  queue.  He 
was  striding  along  zealfully,  brandishing  his  sword, 
and  disdaining  even  to  take  off  his  back  the  bull- 
hide  targe,  though  all  his  neighbours  kept  theirs 
in  front  of  them  on  the  left  arm. 

"You  have  wrecked  honest  homes !"  I  argued 
with  him  in  my  mind.  "  You  i)ut  the  torch  to  the 
widow's  thatch,  you  have  driven  the  cattle  from 
hLlrigmore,  and  what  of  a  girl  with  dark  eyes  like 
the  sloe?  Fancy  man,  man  of  my  fancy!  Oh! 
here's  the  end  of  your  journey!  " 

Our  assailants,  after  their  usual  custom,  dropped 
their   pieces,    such   as   had   them,  when    they  had 


JOHN    SPLENDID  147 

fired  the  first  shot,  and  risked  all  on  the  push  of 
the  target  and  the  slash  of  the  broad  brand,  confi- 
dent even  that  our  six  or  seven  feet  of  escarpment 
would  never  stay  their  onset  any  time  to  speak  of. 
An  abattis  or  a  fosse  would  have  made  this  step 
futile;  but  as  things  were,  it  was  not  altogether 
impossible  that  they  might  surmount  our  low  wall. 
Our  advantage  was  that  the  terre-plcin  on  which 
we  stood  was  three  or  four  feet  higher  than  they 
were  at  the  outer  side  of  the  wall,  apart  from  the 
fact  that  they  were  poised  precariously  on  a  steep 
brae.  We  leaned  calmly  over  the  wall  and  spat  at 
them  with  pistols  now  and  then  as  they  ran  up  the 
hill,  with  Clanranald  and  some  captains  crying 
them  on  at  the  flank  or  middle.  In  the  plain  they 
left  a  piper  who  had  naturally  not  enough  wind  to 
keep  his  instrument  going  and  face  the  hill  at  the 
same  time.  He  strode  up  and  down  in  the  dead- 
liest part  of  the  valley  where  a  well-sent  musket- 
ball  would  never  lose  him,  and  played  a  tune  they 
call  "  The  Galley  of  the  Waves,"  a  Stewart  rant 
with  a  hint  of  the  zest  of  the  sea  in  it.  Nobody 
thought  of  firing  at  him,  though  his  work  was  an 
encouragement  to  our  foes,  and  anon  the  hill-tops 
rang  with  a  duel  of  pibrochs  between  him  and  a 
lad  of  our  garrison,  who  got  round  on  the  top  of 
the  wall  near  the  governor's  house  and  strutted 
high-shoulderedly  up  and  down,  blasting  at  the 
good  braggart  air  of  "  Baile  Inneraora." 

Those  snorting,  wailing,  warring  pipes  mingled 
oddly  with  the  shout  of  the  fighting  men,  who 
had  ways  of  battle  new  to  me  in  practice  though 


148  JOHN   SPLENDID 

they  were  in  a  sense  my  own  countrymen.  Gaelic 
slogans  and  maledictions  they  shouted,  and  when 
one  of  them  fell  in  the  mob,  his  immediate  com- 
rades never  failed  to  stop  short  in  their  charge 
and  coolly  rob  him  of  a  silver  button  off  his  coat, 
or  a  weapon  if  it  seemed  worth  while. 

In  a  little  they  were  soon  clamouring  against 
our  wall.  We  laughed  and  progged  them  off 
with  the  long-handed  axes  to  get  free  play  with 
the  fusils,  and  one  after  another  of  them  fell  off, 
wounded  or  dead. 

"  This  is  the  greatest  folly  ever  I  saw,"  said  Sir 
Donald,  wiping  his  brow  with  a  bloody  hand. 

"  I  wish  I  was  sure  there  was  no  trick  in  it,"  said 
John.  He  was  looking  around  him  and  taking  a 
tug  at  his  belt,  that  braced  him  b}-  a  couple  of 
holes.  Then  he  spat,  for  luck,  on  a  ball  he 
dropped  into  his  fusil,  said  a  Glassary  charm  on  it 
as  he  rammed  home  the  charge  and  brought  the 
butt  to  his  cheek,  aiming  at  a  white-faced  Irisher 
with  a  leathern  waistcoat,  who  fell  backward  into  a 
dub  of  mud  and  stirred  no  more. 

"Four !  "  said  John  ;  "  I  could  scarcely  do  better 
with  my  own  French  fusil  Mairi  Og." 

The  enem)'  drew  off  at  a  command  of  their  cap- 
tain, and  into  the  edge  of  the  wood  that  came  up 
on  the  left  near  our  summit.  We  lost  our  interest 
in  them  for  a  time,  watching  a  man  running  tip  the 
little  valley  from  the  right,  above  Kilmalieu.  He 
came  on,  waving  his  arms  wildly  and  pointing 
ahead;  but  though  he  was  plain  to  our  view,  he 
was  out  of  sight  of  the  enemy  on   the  left. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  149 

A  long  black  coat  hampered  his  movements,  and 
he  looked  gawky  enough,  stumbling  through  the 
rushes. 

•'  If  I  did  n't  think  the  inside  of  Castle  Inneraora 
was  too  snug  to  quit  for  a  deadly  hillside,"  said 
John,  "  I  could  believe  yon  was  our  friend  the 
English  minister." 

"  The  English  minister  sure  enough,"  said  half- 
a-dozen  beside  us. 

"  Here  's  ill  luck  for  us  then  !  "  cried  John,  with 
irony.  "  He  '11  preach  us  to  death ;  the  fellow 's 
deadlier  than  the  Clanranald  banditty." 

Some  one  ran  to  the  post  beside  the  governor's 
house,  and  let  the  gentleman  in  when  he  reached 
it.  He  was  panting  like  a  winded  hound,  the  sweat 
standing  in  beads  on  his  shaven  jowl,  and  for  a 
minute  or  two  he  could  say  nothing,  only  pointing 
at  the  back  of  our  fort  in  the  direction  of  the 
town. 

"A  parish  visit,  is  it,  sir?"  asked  John,  still  in 
his  irony. 

The  minister  sat  him  down  on  a  log  of  wood  and 
clutched  his  side,  still  pointing  eagerly  to  the  south 
of  our  fort.  No  one  could  understand  him,  but  at 
last  he  found  a  choked  and  roupy  voice. 

"  A  band  behind  there,"  he  said  ;  "  your  —  front 
—  attack  is  —  but  — -a  —  feint." 

As  he  spoke,  half-a-dozen  men  in  a  north-country 
tartan  got  on  the  top  of  our  low  rear  wall  that  wc 
thought  impregnable  on  the  lip  of  the  hill,  and 
came  on  us  with  a  most  ferocious  uproar.  "  Bade- 
noch  !  "  they  cried  in  a  fashion  to  rend  the  hills, 


150  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  the  signal  (for  such  it  was  more  than  slogan) 
brought  on  our  other  side  the  Clanranald  gentry. 

What  followed  in  that  hearth-stone  fight  so  hot 
and  brisk  took  so  short  a  space  of  time,  and  hap- 
pened in  so  confused  and  terrible  a  moment,  that 
all  but  my  personal  feelings  escape  me.  My  every 
sense  stirred  with  something  horrible ;  the  numb 
sound  of  a  musket-butt  on  a  head,  the  squeal  of 
men  wounded  at  the  vitals,  and  the  deeper  roar  of 
hate;  a  smell  of  blood  as  I  felt  it  when  a  boy  hold- 
ing the  candle  at  night  to  our  shepherds  slaughter- 
ing shee'p  in  the  barn  at  home ;  before  the  eyes  a 
red  blur  cleared  at  intervals  when  I  rubbed  the 
stinging  sweat  from  my  face. 

Half  a  hundred  of  those  back-gate  assailants  were 
over  our  low  wall  with  their  axe-hooks  and  ladders 
before  we  could  charge  and  prime,  engaging  us 
hand  to  hand  in  the  cobbled  square  of  our  fort,  at 
the  tower  foot.  The  harassment  on  this  new  side 
gave  the  first  band  of  the  enemy  the  chance  to  sur- 
mount our  front  wall,  and  they  were  not  slow  to 
take  it. 

Luckily  our  halberdiers  stood  firm  in  a  mass 
that  faced  both  ways,  and  as  luckily,  we  had  in 
Master  John  M'lver  a  general  of  strategy  and 
experience. 

"Stand  fast,  Campbell  Halberdiers!"  he  cried. 
"  It's  bloody  death,  whether  we  take  it  like  cra\'cns 
or  Gaelic  gentlemen  !  "  He  laid  about  him  with  a 
good  purpose,  and  whether  they  tried  us  in  front 
or  rear,  the  scamps  found  the  levelled  pikes  and 
the    ready   swords.      Some    dropped    beside,    but 


JOHN   SPLENDID  151 

more  dropped  before  us,  for  the  tod  in  a  hole  will 
face  twenty  times  what  he  will  flee  from  in  the 
open  wood  ;  but  never  a  man  of  all  our  striving 
company  fought  sturdier  than  our  minister,  with  a 
weapon  snatched  from  an  Athole  man  he  had 
levelled  at  a  first  blow  from  an  oaken  rung. 

"  The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon !  "  he 
would  cry;  "for  all  the  kings  of  the  Amorites 
that  dwell  in  the  mountains  are  gathered  together 
against  us."  A  slim  elder  man  he  was,  ordinarily 
with  a  wan  sharp  face ;  now  it  was  flushed  and 
hoved  in  anger,  and  he  hissed  his  texts  through 
his  teeth  as  he  faced  the  dogs.  Some  of  youth's 
schooling  was  there,  a  Lowland  youth's  training 
with  the  broadsword  ;  for  he  handled  it  like  no  nov- 
ice, and  even  M'lver  gave  him  "  Bravo,  siias  c  /" 

That  we  held  our  ground  was  no  great  virtue  — 
we  could  scarcely  do  less ;  but  we  did  more,  for 
soon  we  had  our  enemy  driven  back  on  the  walls. 
They  fought  —  there  's  no  denying  it  —  with  a 
frenzy  that  made  them  ill  to  beat;  but  when  a 
couple  of  score  of  our  lads  lined  the  upper  wall 
again  and  kept  back  the  leak  from  that  airt  by  the 
command  of  John  Splendid,  it  left  us  the  chance 
of  sweeping  our  unwelcome  tenants  back  again  on 
the  lower  wall.  They  stayed  stubbornly,  but  we 
had  weight  against  them  and  the  advantage  of  the 
little  brae,  and  by-and-by  we  pinned  them,  like 
foumarts,  against  the  stones.  Most  of  them  put 
back  against  the  wall,  and  fought,  even  with  the 
pike  at  their  vitals,  slashing  empty  air  with  sword 
or  dirk ;    some  got  on  the  wall  again  and  threw 


152  JOHN   SPLENDID 

themselves  over  the  other  side,  risking  the  chance 
of  an  ugHer  death  on  the  rocks  below. 

In  less  than  an  hour  after  the  shot  of  Para  Mor 
(himself  a  stricken  corpse  now)  rang  over  Dun- 
chuach,  our  piper,  with  a  gash  on  his  face,  was  play- 
ing some  vaunting  air  on  the  walls  again,  and  the 
fort  was  free  of  the  enemy,  of  whom  the  bulk  had 
fallen  back  into  the  wood,  and  seemingly  set  out 
for  Inneraora. 

Then  we  gathered  and  stroked  our  dead  — 
twenty-and-three;  we  put  our  wounded  in  the 
governor's  house,  and  gave  them  the  rough  leech- 
craft  of  the  fighting  field ;  the  dead  of  the  assail- 
ants we  threw  over  the  rock,  and  among  them  was 
a  clean-shaven  man  in  trews  and  a  tight-fitting  cota 
gcarr,  who  left  two  halves  of  an  otter-skin  cap 
behind  him. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  153 


CHAPTER  XH 

"  I  WISH  to  God  !  "  cried  John  Splendid,  "  that  I 
had  a  drink  of  Altan-aluin  at  this  minute,  or  the 
well  of  Beallach-an-uarain." 

It  was  my  own  first  thought,  or  something  very- 
like  it,  when  the  fighting  was  by,  for  a  most  cruel 
thirst  crisped  my  palate,  and,  as  ill  luck  had  it, 
there  was  not  a  cup  of  water  in  the  fort. 

"  I  could  be  doing  with  a  drop  myself,"  said  the 
English  minister;  "  I  '11  take  a  stoup  and  go  down 
to  the  well  yonder  and  fetch  it." 

He  spoke  of  the  spout  in  the  gut,  a  clean  little 
well  of  hill-water  that,  winter  or  summer,  kept  full 
to  the  lip  and  accessible. 

We  had  gathered  into  the  fort  itself  (all  but  a 
few  sentinels),  glad  for  a  time  to  escape  the  sight  of 
yon  shambles  of  friend  and  foe  that  the  battle  had 
left  us.  The  air  had  softened  of  a  sudden  from  its 
piercing  cold  to  a  mildness  balmy  by  comparison ; 
the  sky  had  leadened  over  with  a  menacing  vapour, 
and  over  the  water  —  in  the  great  glen  between  Ben 
Ime  and  Ardno  —  a  mist  hurried  to  us  like  driving 
smoke.  A  few  flakes  of  snow  fell,  lingering  in  the 
air  as  feathers  from  a  nest  in  spring. 

"  Here  's  a  friend  of  Argile  back  again,"  said  an 
old   halberdier,   staunching  a  savage    cut    on    his 


154  JOHN    SPLENDID 

knee,  and  mumbling  his  words  because  he  was 
chewing  as  he  spoke  an  herb  that 's  the  poultice 
for  every  wound. 

"  Frost  and  snow  might  have  been  Argilc's  friend 
when  that  proverb  was  made,"  said  John  Splendid, 
"  but  here  are  changed  times ;  our  last  snow  did 
not  keep  Colkitto  on  the  safe  side  of  Cladich.  Still, 
if  this  be  snow  in  earnest,"  he  added  with  a  cheer- 
ier tone,  "  it  may  rid  us  of  these  vermin,  who  '11 
find  provand  iller  to  get  every  extra  day  they  bide. 
Where  are  you  going,  Master  Gordon?" 

"  To  the  well,"  said  the  minister,  simply,  stop- 
ping at  the  port,  with  a  wooden  stoup  in  his  hand. 
"  Some  of  our  friends  must  be  burning  for  a 
mouthful,  poor  dears ;  the  wounded  flesh  is 
drouthy." 

John  turned  himself  round  on  a  keg  he  sat  on, 
and  gave  a  French  shrug  he  had  picked  up  among 
foreign  cavaliers. 

"Put  it  down,  sir,"  he  said;  "  there 's  a  whccn 
less  precious  lives  in  this  hold  than  a  curate's,  and 
for  the  turn  you  did  us  in  coming  up  to  alarm  us 
of  the  back  attack,  if  for  nothing  else,  I  would  be 
sorry  to  see  you  come  to  any  skaith.  Do  you  not 
know  that  between  us  and  the  well  there  might  be 
death  half  a  dozen  times?  The  wood,  I  '11  war- 
rant, is  botching  still  with  those  tlisappointed 
warriors  of  Clanranald,  who  would  have  no  more 
reverence  for  your  life  than  for  your  Gcnc\a 
bands." 

"  There  's  no  surer  cure  for  the  disease  of  death 
in  a  hind  than  for  the  same  murrain   in  a  minister 


JOHN   SPLENDID  155 

of  the  Gospel  —  or  a  landed  gentleman,"  said 
Gordon,  touched  in  his  tone  a  little  by  the  aus- 
terity of  his  speeches  as  we  heard  them  at  the 
kirk-session. 

John  showed  some  confusion  in  his  face,  and 
the  minister  had  his  feet  on  the  steps  before  he 
could  answer  him. 

"  Stop,  stop  !  "  he  cried.  "  Might  I  have  the 
honour  of  serving  the  Kirk  for  once?  I'll  get 
the  water  from  the  well,  minister,  if  you  '11  go  in 
again  and  see  how  these  poor  devils  of  ours  are 
thriving.  I  was  but  joking  when  I  hinted  at  the 
risk ;  our  Athole  gentry  are,  like  enough,  far  off 
by  this  time." 

"  I  liked  you  better  when  you  were  selfish  and 
told  the  truth,  than  now  that  you  're  valiant  (in  a 
small  degree)  and  excuse  it  with  a  lie,"  quo'  the 
minister,  and  off  he  set. 

He  was  beyond  the  wall,  and  stepping  down  the 
brae  before  we  could  be  out  at  the  door  to  look 
after  him. 

"  Damn  his  nipped  tongue !  "  fumed  John. 
"  But,  man  !  there  's  a  lovable  quirk  in  his  char- 
acter, too.  I'll  give  twenty  pounds  (Scots)  to  his 
kirk-plate  at  the  first  chance  if  he  wins  out  of  this 
fool's  escapade  of  his  without  injury." 

There  was  no  doubt  the  minister's  task  had  many 
hazards  in  it,  for  he  carried  stave  nor  steel  as  he 
jogged  on  with  the  stoup,  over  the  frank  open  brae- 
side  down  to  the  well.  Looking  at  him  going  down 
into  the  left  of  the  gut  as  unafcared  as  he  had 
come  up  on   the   right    of  it,  I   put    myself  in   his 


156  JOHN   SPLENDID 

place,  and  felt  the  skin  of  my  back  pimpling  at  the 
instinct  of  lurking  enemies. 

But  Gordon  got  safely  to  the  well,  through  the 
snow,  now  falling  in  a  heavy  shower,  dipped  out 
a  stoupful,  and  turned  about  to  come  home.  A 
few  yards  off  his  path  back,  to  the  right  and  closer 
to  the  wood,  lay  the  only  man  of  all  the  bodies 
lying  in  the  valley  who  seemed  to  have  any  life 
left  in  him.  This  fellow  lay  on  his  side,  and  was 
waving  his  hands  feverishly  when  the  minister  went 
up  to  him,  and  — as  we  saw  in  a  dim  way  through 
the  snow  —  gave  him  a  drink  of  the  water  from  the 
lip  of  the  stoup. 

"  Sassenach  fool !  "  said  young  MacLachlan, 
parched  with  thirst,  gathering  in  with  a  scooped 
hand  the  snow  as  it  fell  on  the  wall,  and  glutton- 
ously sucking  it. 

"  There  are  many  kinds  of  folly,  man,"  said  I ; 
"  and  I  would  think  twice  before  I  would  grudge 
a  cleric's  right  to  give  a  mouthful  of  water  to  a 
dying  man,  even  if  he  was  a  MacDonald  on  his 
way  to  the  Pit." 

"Tuts,  tuts!  PLlrigmorc,"  cried  John,  "let  the 
young  cock  crow;  he  means  no  more  than  that 
it's  hard  to  be  hungry  and  see  your  brother  feed  a 
foeman.  Indeed  I  could  be  wishing  m}'self  that 
his  reverence  was  the  Good  Samaritan  on  a  more 
fitting  occasion." 

We  were  bandying  words  now,  and  not  so  closch' 
watching  our  friend  in  the  hollow,  and  it  was  Sir 
Donald,  standing  to  a  side  a  little,  who  called  our 
attention  anew,  with  a  cry  of  alarm. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  157 

"  Look,  lads,  look !  "  he  cried,  "  God  help 
Gordon !  " 

We  looked  through  the  snow  —  a  gray  veil  — 
and  saw  two  or  three  men  fall  on  the  minister. 

John  Splendid  but  stopped  a  second  to  say,  "  It 
may  be  a  feint  to  draw  us  off  the  fort ;  bide  where 
ye  are,"  and  then  he  leaped  over  the  wall,  armed 
with  a  claymore  picked  from  the  haunch  of  a  hal- 
berdier beside  him.  I  was  over  at  his  heels,  and 
the  pair  of  us  scoured  down  the  brae. 

There  was  some  hazard  in  the  enterprise.  I  'm 
ashamed  to  this  day  to  tell  I  thought  that,  at  every 
foot  of  the  way  as  we  ran  on.  Never  before  nor 
since  have  I  felt  a  wood  so  sinister,  so  ghastly,  so 
inspired  by  dreadful  airs,  and  when  it  was  full  on 
our  flank,  I  kept  my  head  half  turned  to  give  an 
eye  to  where  I  was  going  and  an  eye  to  what  might 
come  out  on  my  rear.  People  tell  you  fear  takes 
wings  at  a  stern  climax,  that  a  hot  passion  fills  the 
brain  with  blood  and  the  danger  blurs  to  the  eye. 
It 's  a  theory  that  works  but  poorly  on  a  forlorn 
hope,  with  a  certainty  that  the  enemy  are  out- 
numbering you  on  the  rear.  With  man  and  ghost, 
I  have  always  felt  the  same ;  give  me  my  back  to 
the  wall,  and  I  could  pluck  up  valour  enough  for 
the  occasion,  but  there  's  a  spot  between  the  shoul- 
ders that  would  be  coward  flesh  in  Hector  himself. 
That,  I  'm  thinking,  is  what  keeps  some  armies 
from  turning  tail  to  heavy  odds. 

Perhaps  the  terror  behind  (John  swore  anon  he 
never  thought  on  't  till  he  learned  I  had,  and  then 
he  said  he  felt  it  worse  than  I)  gave  our  approach 


158  JOHN   SPLENDID 

all  the  more  impctuousness,  for  we  were  down  in 
the  gut  before  the  MacDonald  loiterers  (as  they 
proved)  were  aware  of  our  coming.  We  must 
have  looked  unco  numerous  and  stalwart  in  the 
driving  snow,  for  the  scamps  dashed  off  into  the 
wood  as  might  children  caught  in  a  mischief  We 
let  them  go,  and  bent  over  our  friend,  lying  with 
a  very  gash  look  by  the  body  of  the  MacDonald, 
now  in  the  last  throes,  a  bullet-wound  in  his  neck 
and  the  blood  frothing  at  his  mouth. 

"  Ar't  hurt,  sir?"  asked  John,  bending  on  a 
knee,  but  the  minister  gave  no  answer. 

We  turned  him  round  and  found  no  wound  but 
a  bruise  on  the  head,  that  showed  he  had  been 
attacked  with  a  cudgel  by  some  camp-followers  of 
the  enemy,  who  had  neither  swords,  nor  reverence 
for  a  priest  who  was  giving  a  brotherly  sup  to  one 
of  their  own  tartan.  In  that  driving  snow  we 
rubbed  him  into  life  again,  cruelly  pallid,  but  with 
no  broken  bit  about  him. 

"Where's  my  stoup?"  were  his  first  words; 
"  my  poor  lads  upbye  must  be  w^earying  for 
water."  He  looked  pleased  to  see  the  same  be- 
side him  where  he  had  set  it  down,  with  its  water 
untouched,  and  then  he  cast  a  wae  glance  on  the 
dead  man  beside  him. 

"  Poor  wretch,  poor  wretch !  "  said  he. 

We  took  the  stoup  and  our  minister  up  to  the 
summit,  and  had  got  him  but  safely  set  there 
when  he  let  out  what  gave  me  the  route  again  from 
Dunchuach  and  led  to  divers  circumstances  that  had 
otherwise  never  come  into  this  story  if  story  there 


JOHN   SPLENDID  159 

was,  which  I  doubt  there  had  never  been.  Often 
I  Ve  thought  me  since  how  pregnant  was  that 
Christian  act  of  Gordon  in  giving  water  to  a  foe. 
Had  I  gone,  or  had  John  gone  for  the  stoup  of 
water,  none  of  us,  in  all  likelihood,  had  stirred  a 
foot  to  relieve  yon  enemy's  drouth ;  but  he  found 
a  godly  man,  though  an  austere  one  too  on  occasion, 
and  paid  for  the  cup  of  water  with  a  hint  in  broken 
English  that  was  worth  all  the  gold  in  the  world  to 
me.  Gordon  told  us  the  man's  dying  confidence 
whenever  he  had  come  to  himself  a  little  more  in 
the  warmth  of  the  fort  fire. 

"There's  a  woman  and  child,"  said  he,  "in  the 
wood  of  Strongara." 


i6o  JOHN    SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XIII 

When  the  English  minister,  in  his  odd  lalland 
Scots,  had  told  us  this  tale  of  the  dying  Mac- 
Donald,  I  found  for  the  first  time  my  feeling  to  the 
daughter  of  the  Provost  of  Inneraora.  Before  this 
the  thought  of  her  was  but  a  pleasant  engagement 
for  the  mind  at  leisure  moments  ;  now  it  flashed  on 
my  heart  with  a  stound  that  yon  black  eyes  were  to 
me  the  dearest  jewels  in  the  world,  that  lacking  her 
presence  these  glens  and  mountains  were  very  cold 
and  empty.  I  think  I  gave  a  gasp  that  let  John 
Splendid  into  my  secret  there  and  then ;  but  at 
least  I  left  him  no  doubt  about  what  I  would 
be  at. 

"  What 's  the  nearer  way  to  Strongara  ?  "  I  asked, 
"alongside  the  river,  or  through  Tombreck?" 

He  but  peered  at  me  oddly  a  second  under  his 
brows,  —  a  trifle  wistfully,  though  I  might  natur- 
ally think  his  mood  would  be  quizzical,  then  he 
sobered  in  a  moment.  That 's  what  I  loved  about 
the  man  ;  a  fool  would  have  laughed  at  the  bravado 
of  my  notion,  a  man  of  thinner  sentiment  would  have 
marred  the  moment  by  pointing  out  difficulties. 

"  So  that 's  the  airt  the  wind  's  in  !  "  he  said,  and 
then  he  added,  "  I  think  I  could  show  you,  not 
the  shortest,  but  the  safest  road." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  i6i 

"  I  need  no  guidance,"  I  cried  in  a  hurry, 
"only  —  " 

"  Only  a  friend  who  knows  every  wood  in  the 
countryside,  and  has  your  interest  at  heart,  Colin," 
he  said  softly,  putting  a  hand  on  my  elbow  and 
gripping  it  in  a  homely  way.  It  was  the  first  time 
he  gave  me  my  Christian  name  since  I  made  his 
acquaintance. 

His  company  was  not  to  be  denied. 

We  made  up  some  bear-meal  bannocks,  and  a 
collop  of  boiled  venison  in  a  dorlacJi  or  knapsack 
that  I  carried  on  my  back,  borrowed  plaids  from 
some  of  the  common  soldiery,  and  set  out  for 
Strongara  at  the  mouth  of  the  night,  with  the  snow 
still  driving  over  the  land. 

MacLachlan  was  for  with  us,  but  John  turned  on 
him  with  a  great  deal  of  determination,  and  dared 
him  to  give  extra  risk  to  our  enterprise  by  adding 
another  man  to  the  chance  of  the  enemy  seeing  us. 

The  lad  met  the  objection  ungraciously,  and  John 
took  to  his  flattery. 

"The  fact  is,  MacLachlan,"  said  he,  taking  him 
aside  with  a  hand  on  his  lapel,  and  a  show  of  great 
confidence;  "  the  fact  is,  we  can't  be  leaving  this 
place  in  charge  of  a  lot  of  old  bodacJis  —  Sir 
Donald  the  least  able  of  them  all  —  and  if  there  's 
another  attack  the  guidance  of  the  defence  will 
depend  on  you.  You  may  relish  that  or  you  may 
not,  perhaps,  after  all,  you  would  be  safer  with 
us  —  " 

MacLachlan  put  up  his  chest  an  inch  or  two, 
unconscious  that  he  did  it,  and  whistled  a  stave  of 

II 


i62  JOHN   SPLENDID 

music  to  give  evidence  of  his  indifference.  Then 
he  knitted  his  brows  to  cogitate,  as  it  were, 
and  — 

"  Very  well !  "  said  he.  "  If  you  come  on  my 
coz,  you  '11  bring  her  back  here,  or  to  the  castle,  I 
suppose?  " 

"  I  had  no  thought  of  running  away  with  the  lass, 
I  '11  take  my  oath,"  cried  John,  sticking  his  tongue 
in  the  cheek  nearest  me. 

"  I  wish  I  could  fathom  yon  fellow's  mind,"  I 
said  to  my  comrade  as  we  stepped  out  through 
the  snow  and  into  the  wooded  brae-side,  keeping  a 
wary  eye  about  for  spies  of  the  enemy,  whose  foot- 
prints we  came  on  here  and  there,  but  so  faint  in 
the  fresh  snowfall  that  it  was  certain  they  were  now 
in  the  valley. 

"  Do  you  find  it  difficult  ?  "  asked  John.  "  I 
thought  a  man  of  schooling,  with  Latin  at  his 
tongue"s-cnd  (though  very  indifferent  Latin  in  the 
minister's  opinion)  would  see  to  the  deepest  heart 
of  MacLachlan." 

"  He  's  crafty." 

"  So  's  the  polecat  till  the  fox  meets  him.  Tuts, 
man,  you  have  a  singular  jealousy  of  the  creature." 

"  Since  the  first  day  I  saw  him." 

John  laughed. 

"  That  was  in  the  Provost's,"  quo'  he,  and  he 
hummed  a  French  song  I  caught  the  meaning  of 
but  slightly. 

"Wrong,  wrong!"  said  I,  striding  under  the 
trees  as  we  slanted  to  the  right  for  Tombrcck. 
"  His  manner  is  provoking," 


JOHN   SPLENDID  163 

"  I  've  seen  him  polish  it  pretty  well  for  the 
ladies." 

"  His  temper's  always  on  the  boil." 

"  Spirit,  man  ;  spirit !  I  like  a  fellow  of  warmth 
now  and  then." 

"  He  took  it  most  ungraciously  when  we  put 
him  out  of  the  Provost's  house  on  the  night  of 
the  squabble  in  the  town." 

"  It  was  an  awkward  position  he  was  in.  I  'd 
have  been  a  bit  blackbrowcd  about  it  myself,"  said 
John.  "  Man !  it 's  easy  to  pick  holes  in  the 
character  of  an  unfriend,  and  you  and  MacLachlan 
are  not  friendly,  for  one  thing  that 's  not  his  fault 
any  more  than  yours." 

"  You  're  talking  of  the  girl,"  I  said,  sharply, 
and  not  much  caring  to  show  him  how  hot  my 
face  burned  at  having  to  mention  her. 

"That  same,"  said  he;  "I'll  warrant  that  if  it 
was  n't  for  the  girl  (the  old  tale  !  the  old  tale !), 
you  had  thought  the  young  sprig  not  a  bad  gen- 
tleman, after  all." 

"  Oh,  damn  his  soul !  "  I  blurted  out.  "  What  is 
he  that  he  should  pester  his  betters  with  his 
attentions?  " 

"A  cousin,  I  think,  a  simple  cousin-gcrman  they 
tell  me,"  said  John,  drily ;  "  and  in  a  matter  of 
betters,  now  —  eh  ?  " 

My  friend  coughed  on  the  edge  of  his  plaid,  and 
I  could  swear  he  was  laughing  at  me.  I  said 
nothing  for  a  while,  and  with  my  skin  burning,  led 
the  way  at  a  hunter's  pace.  But  John  was  not 
done  with  the  subject. 


i64  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"  I  'm  a  bit  beyond  the  age  of  it  myself,"  he  said  ; 
"  but  that 's  no  reason  why  I  should  n't  have  eyes 
in  my  head.  I  know  how  much  put  about  you  are 
to  have  this  young  fellow  gallivanting  round  the 
lady." 

"Jealous,  you  mean,"  I  cried. 

"  I  did  n't  think  of  putting  it  that  way." 

"  No;  it's  too  straightforward  a  way  for  you  — 
ever  the  roundabout  way  for  you.  I  wish  to  God 
you  would  sometimes  let  your  Campbell  tongue 
come  out  of  the  kink,  and  say  what  you  mean." 

With  a  most  astonishing  steady  voice  for  a  man 
as  livid  as  the  snow  on  the  hair  of  his  brogues,  and 
with  his  hand  on  the  hilt  of  his  dirk,  John  cried  — 

"  Stop  a  bit." 

I  faced  him  in  a  most  unrighteous  humour, 
ready  to  quarrel  with  my  shadow. 

"  For  a  man  I  'm  doing  a  favour  to,  Elrigmore," 
he  said,  "  you  seem  to  have  a  poor  notion  of  polite- 
ness. I  'm  willing  to  make  some  allowance  for  a 
lover's  tirravee  about  a  woman  who  never  made 
tryst  with  him ;  but  I  '11  allow  no  man  to  call  down 
the  credit  of  my  clan  and  name." 

A  pair  of  gowks,  were  w^e  not,  in  that  darkening 
wood,  quarrelling  on  an  issue  as  flimsy  as  a  spider's 
web,  but  who  will  say  it  was  not  human  nature?  I 
daresay  we  might  have  come  to  hotter  words  and 
bloody  blows  there  and  then,  but  for  one  of  the 
trifles  that  ever  come  in  the  way  to  change  —  not 
fate,  for  that's  changeless,  but  the  semblance  of  it. 

"  My  mother  herself  was  a  Campbell  of  an  older 
family  than  yours,"  I  started  to  say,  to  show  I  had 


JOHN    SPLENDID  165 

some    knowledge  of  the  breed,  and   at  the  same 
time  a  notion  of  fairness  to  the  clan. 

This  was  fresh  heather  on  the  fire. 

"  Older  !  "  he  cried  ;  "  she  was  a  Mac  Vicar  as 
far  as  ever  I  heard ;  it  was  the  name  she  took  to 
kirk  with  her  when  she  married  your  father." 

"So,"  said  I;   "but  —  " 

*'  And  though  I  allow  her  grandfather  Dol-a- 
mhonadh  (Donald-of-the-Hills)  was  a  Campbell,  it 
was  in  a  roundabout  way ;  he  was  but  the  son  of 
one  of  the  Craignish  gentry." 

"  You  yourself —  " 

"  Sir !  "  said  he  in  a  new  tone,  as  cold  as  steel 
and  as  sharp,  misjudging  my  intention. 

"You  yourself  are  no  more  than  a  M'lver." 

"  And  what  of  that?  "  he  cried,  cooling  down  a 
bit.  "  The  M'lvers  of  Asknish  are  in  the  direct 
line  from  Duncan,  Lord  of  Lochow.  We  had 
Pennymore,  Stronshira,  and  Glenaray  as  cadets  of 
Clan  Campbell  when  your  Craignish  cross-breeds 
were  under  the  salt." 

"  Only  by  the  third  cousin,"  said  I ;  "  my  father 
has  told  me  over  and  over  again  that  Duncan's  son 
had  no  heir." 

And  so  we  went  into  all  this  perplexity  of  High- 
land pedigree  like  old  wives  at  a  waulking,  forget- 
ting utterly  that  what  we  began  to  quarrel  about 
was  the  more  serious  charge  of  lying.  M'lver 
was  most  frantic  about  the  business,  and  I  think 
I  was  cool,  for  I  was  never  a  person  that  cared  a 
bodle  about  my  history  bye  the  second  generation. 
They  might  be  lairds  or  they  might  be  lackeys  for 


i66  JOHN   SPLENDID 

all  the  differ  it  made  to  me.  Not  that  there  were 
any  lackeys  among  them.  My  grandfather  was 
the  grandson  of  Tormaid  Mor,  who  held  the  whole 
east  side  of  Lochow  from  Ford  to  Sonachan,  and 
we  had  at  home  the  four-posted  bed  that  Tormaid 
slept  on  when  the  heads  of  the  house  of  Argile 
were  lying  on  white-hay  or  chaff. 

At  last  John  broke  into  a  laugh. 

"  Are  n't  you  the  amadan  to  be  biting  the  tongue 
between  your  teeth?"  he  said. 

"  What  is  it?  "  I  asked,  constrained  to  laugh  too. 

"You  talk  about  the  crook  in  our  Campbell 
tongue  in  one  breath,"  said  he,  "  and  in  the  next 
you  would  make  yourself  a  Campbell  more  sib  to 
the  chief  than  I  am  myself  Don't  you  think  we 
might  put  off  our  little  affairs  of  family  history  till 
we  find  a  lady  and  a  child  in  Strongara?  " 

"  No  more  of  it,  then,"  said  I.  "  Our  difference 
began  on  my  fool's  notion  that  because  I  had 
something  of  what  you  would  call  a  liking  for  this 
girl,  no  one  else  should  let  an  eye  light  on  her." 

By  now  we  were  in  a  wide  glade  in  the  Tom- 
breck  wood.  On  our  left  we  could  see  lying 
among  the  gray  snow  the  house  of  Tombreck, 
with  no  light  nor  lowe  (as  the  saying  goes)  ;  and 
though  wc  knew  better  than  to  expect  there  might 
be  living  people  in  it,  we  sped  down  to  see  the 
place. 

"  There  's  one  chance  in  a  million  she  might 
have  ventured  here,"  I  said. 

A  most  melancholy  dwelling  !  Dwelling  indeed 
no  more  but  for  the  hoody-crow,  and  for  the  fawn 


JOHN   SPLENDID  167 

of  the  hill  that  years  after  I  saw  treading  over  the 
grass-grown  lintel  of  its  door.  To-night  the  place 
was  full  of  empty  airs  and  ghosts  of  sounds 
inexplicable,  wailing  among  the  cabars  that  jutted 
black  and  scarred  mid-way  from  wall  to  wall.  The 
byre  was  in  a  huddle  of  damp  thatch,  and  strewn 
(as  God  's  my  judge)  by  the  bones  of  the  cattle 
the  enemy  had  refused  to  drive  before  them  in  the 
sauciness  of  their  glut.  A  desolate  garden  slept 
about  the  place,  with  bush  and  tree  —  once  tended 
by  a  family  of  girls,  left  orphan  and  desolate  for 
evermore. 

We  went  about  on  tiptoes  as  it  might  be  in  a 
house  of  the  dead,  and  peeped  in  at  the  windows 
at  where  had  been  chambers  lit  by  the  cheerful 
cruisie  or  dancing  with  peat-fire  flame  —  only  the 
dark  was  there,  horrible  with  the  odours  of  char, 
or  the  black  joist  against  the  dun  sky.  And  then 
we  went  to  the  front  door  (for  Tombrcck  was  a 
gentle-house),  and  found  it  still  on  the  hinges,  but 
hanging  half  back  to  give  view  to  the  gloomy 
interior.  It  was  a  spectacle  to  chill  the  heart,  a 
house  burned  in  hatred,  the  hearth  of  many  songs 
and  the  chambers  of  love,  merrymaking,  death, 
and  the  children's  feet,  robbed  of  every  interest 
but  its  ghosts  and  the  memories  of  them  they 
came  to. 

"  It  were  useless  to  look  here  ;  she  is  not  here," 
I  said  in  a  whisper  to  my  comrade. 

He  stood  with  his  bonnet  in  his  hand,  dumb  for 
a  space,  then  speaking  with  a  choked  utterance. 

"  Our   homes,    our   homes,    Colin !  "    he   cried. 


i68  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"  Have  I  not  had  the  happy  nights  in  those  same 
walls,  those  harmless  hospitable  halls,  those  dead 
halls?" 

And  he  looked  broadcast  over  the  country-side. 

"  The  curse  of  Conan  and  the  black-stones  on 
the  hands  that  wrought  this  work,"  he  said.  "  Poison 
to  their  wells ;  may  the  brutes  die  far  afield  !  " 

The  man  was  in  a  tumult  of  grief  and  passion, 
the  tears,  I  knew  by  his  voice,  welling  to  his  eyes. 
And  indeed  I  was  not  happy  myself,  had  not  been 
happy  indeed,  by  this  black  home,  even  if  the  girl 
I  loved  was  waiting  me  at  the  turn  of  the  road. 

"  Let  us  be  going,"  I  said  at  last. 

"  She  might  be  here;  she  might  be  in  the  little 
plantation !  "  he  said  (and  still  in  the  melancholy 
and  quiet  of  the  place  we  talked  in  whispers), 

"  Could  you  not  give  a  call,  a  signal  ?  "  he  asked  ; 
and  I  had  mind  of  the  call  I  had  once  taught  her, 
the  doleful  pipe  of  the  curlew. 

I  gave  it  with  hesitancy  to  the  listening  night. 
It  came  back  an  echo  from  the  hills,  but  brought 
no  other  answer. 

A  wild  bird  roosting  somewhere  in  the  ruined 
house  flapped  out  by  the  door  and  over  us.  I  am 
not  a  believer  in  the  ghostly  —  at  least  to  the 
extent  of  some  of  our  people ;  but  I  was  alarmed, 
till  my  reason  came  to  me  and  the  badinage  of 
the  professors  at  college,  who  had  twitted  me  on 
my  fears  of  the  mischancy.  But  MTver  clutched 
me  by  the  shoulder  in  a  frenzy  of  terror.  I  could 
hear  his  teeth  chittering  as  if  he  had  come  out  of 
the  sea. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  169 

"  Name  of  God  !  "  he  cried.     "  What  was  yon?  " 

"  But  a  night-hag,"  said  I. 

He  was  ashamed  of  his  weakness ;  but  the  night, 
as  he  said,  had  too  many  holes  in  it  for  his  fancy. 

And  so  we  went  on  again  across  the  hill  face  in 
the  sombre  gloaming.  It  was  odd  that  the  last 
time  I  had  been  on  this  hillside  had  been  for  a 
glimpse  of  that  same  girl  we  sought  to-night. 
Years  ago,  when  I  was  a  lad,  she  had  on  a  summer 
been  sewing  with  a  kinswoman  in  Carlunan,  the 
mill  croft  beside  a  linn  of  the  river,  where  the 
salmon  plout  in  a  most  wonderful  profusion,  and 
I  had  gone  at  morning  to  the  hill  to  watch  her 
pass  up  and  down  in  the  garden  of  the  mill,  or 
feed  the  pigeons  at  the  round  doo-cot,  content  (or 
well-nigh  content)  to  see  her  and  fancy  the  wind 
in  her  tresses,  the  song  at  her  lip.  In  these  morn- 
ings the  animals  of  the  hill  and  the  wood  and  I 
were  friendly ;  they  guessed  somehow,  perhaps, 
no  harm  was  in  my  heart:  the  young  roes  came 
up  unafraid,  almost  to  my  presence,  and  the  birds 
fluttered  like  comrades  about  me,  and  the  little 
animals  that  flourish  in  the  wild  dallied  boldly  in 
my  path.  It  was  a  soft  and  tranquil  atmosphere, 
it  was  a  world  (I  think  now),  very  happy  and 
unperplexed.  And  at  evening,  after  a  hurried 
meal,  I  was  off  over  the  hills  to  this  brae  anew,  to 
watch  her  who  gave  me  an  unrest  of  the  spirit, 
unappeasable  but  precious.  I  think,  though  the 
mornings  were  sweet,  't  was  the  eve  that  was 
sweeter  still.  All  the  valley  would  be  lying  sound- 
less  and   sedate,  the   hills    of  Salachary  and    the 


I/O  JOHN   SPLENDID 

forest  of  Crcag  Dubli  purpling  in  the  setting  sun, 
a  rich  gold  tipping  Dunchuach  like  a  thimble. 
Then  the  eastern  woods  filled  with  dark  caverns  of 
shade,  wherein  the  tall  trunks  of  the  statelier  firs 
stood  gray  as  ghosts.  What  was  it,  in  that  pre- 
cious time,  gave  me,  in  the  very  heart  of  my  hap- 
piness, a  foretaste  of  the  melancholy  of  coming 
years?  My  heart  would  swell,  the  tune  upon  my 
lip  would  cease,  my  eyes  would  blur  foolishly, 
looking  on  that  prospect  most  magic  and  fine. 
Rarely,  in  that  happy  age,  did  I  venture  to  come 
down  and  meet  the  girl,  but  —  so  contrary  is  the 
nature  of  man  !  —  the  day  w^as  happier  when  I 
worshipped  afar,  though  I  went  home  fuming  at 
my  own    lack   of  spirit. 

To-day,  my  grief!  how  different  the  tale  !  That 
bygone  time  loomed  upon  me  like  a  wave  borne 
down  on  a  mariner  on  a  frail  raft,  the  passion  of 
the  past  ground  mc  inwardly  in  a  numb  pain. 

We  stumbled  through  the  snow,  and  my  com- 
rade —  good  heart !  —  said  never  a  word  to  mar 
my  meditation.  On  our  right,  the  hill  of  Meall 
Ruadh  rose  up  like  a  storm-cloud  ere  the  blackest 
of  the  night  fell;  we  walked  on  the  edges  of  the 
plantations,  surmising  our  way  by  the  aid  of  the 
gray  snow  around  us. 

It  was  not  till  we  were  in  the  very  heart  of 
Strongara  wood  that  I  came  to  my  reason  and 
thought  what  folly  was  this  to  seek  tlie  wanderer 
in  such  a  place  in  dead  of  night.  To  walk  that 
ancient  wood,  on  the  coarse  and  broken  ground, 
among   fallen   timber,   bog,  bush,  water-pass,  and 


JOHN   SPLENDID  171 

hillock,  would  have  tried  a  sturdy  forester  by 
broad  day ;  it  was,  to  us  weary  travellers,  after  a 
day  of  sturt,  a  madness  to  seek  through  it  at  night 
for  a  woman  and  child,  whose  particular  conceal- 
ment we  had  no  means  of  guessing. 

M'lver,  natheless,  let  me  flounder  through  that 
perplexity  for  a  time,  fearful,  I  suppose,  to  hurt 
my  feelings  by  showing  me  how  little  I  knew  of 
it,  and  finally  he  hinted  at  three  cairns  he  was 
acquaint  with,  each  elevated  somewhat  over  the 
general  run  of  the  country,  and  if  not  the  harbour- 
age a  refugee  would  make  for,  at  least  the  most 
suitable  coign  to  overlook  the  Strongara  wood. 

"  Lead  me  anywhere,  for  God's  sake  !  "  said  I ; 
"  I  'm  as  helpless  as  a  mowdie  on  the  sea-beach." 

He  knew  the  wood  as  he  knew  his  own  pocket, 
for  he  had  hunted  it  many  times  with  his  cousin, 
and  so  he  led  me  briskly,  by  a  kind  of  natural 
path,  to  the  first  cairn.  Neither  there  nor  at  the 
second  did  I  get  answer  to  my  whistle. 

"  We  '11  go  up  on  the  third,"  said  John,  "  and 
bide  there  till  morning ;  scouring  a  wood  in  this 
fashion  is  like  hunting  otters  in  the  deep  sea." 

We  reached  the  third  cairn  when  the  hour  was 
long  past  midnight.  I  piped  again  in  vain,  and 
having  ate  part  of  our  collop,  we  set  us  down  to 
wait  the  dawn.  The  air,  for  mid-winter,  was 
almost  congenial ;  the  snow  fell  no  longer,  the 
north  part  of  the  sky  was  wondrous  clear  and  even 
jubilant  with  star. 


172  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XIV 

I  WOKE  with  a  shiver  at  the  hour  before  dawn, 
that  strange  hour  when  the  bird  turns  on  the  bough 
to  change  his  dream,  when  the  wild-cat  puts  out 
his  tongue  to  taste  the  air  and  curls  more  warmly 
into  his  own  fur;  when  the  leaf  of  the  willows  gives 
a  tremor  in  the  most  airless  morning.  M'lver 
breathed  heavily  beside  me,  rolled  in  his  plaid  to 
the  very  eyes;  but  the  dumb  cry  of  the  day  in 
travail  called  him,  too,  out  of  the  chamber  of  sleep, 
and  he  turned  on  his  back  with  a  snatch  of  a  sol- 
dier's drill  on  his  lips,  but  without  opening  his 
eyes. 

We  were  on  the  edge  of  a  glade  of  the  wood,  at 
the  watershed  of  a  small  burn  that  tinkled  among 
its  ice  along  the  ridge  from  Tombreck,  dividing 
close  beside  us,  half  of  it  going  to  Shira  Glen  and 
half  to  Aora.  The  tall  trees  stood  over  us  like 
sentinels,  coated  with  snow  in  every  bough,  a  cool, 
crisp  air  fanned  me,  with  a  hint  in  it,  somehow,  of 
a  smouldering  wood-fire.  And  I  heard  close  at 
hand  the  call  of  an  owl,  as  like  the  whimper  of  a 
child  as  ever  howlet's  vesper  mocked.  Then  to 
my  other  side,  my  plaid  closer  about  mc,  and  to 
my  dreaming  anew. 

It  was  the  same  whimper  waked  me  a  second 
time,  now  too  prolonged  to  be  an  owl's  complaint, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  173 

and  I  sat  upright  to  listen.  It  was  now  the  break 
of  day.  A  faint  gray  Hght  brooded  among  the 
tree  tops. 

"John!  John!"  I  said  in  my  companion's  ear, 
shaking  his  shoulder. 

He  stood  to  his  feet  in  a  blink,  wide  awake, 
fumbling  at  his  sword-belt  as  a  man  at  hurried 
wakings  on  foreign  shores. 

"What  is  it?"  he  asked,  in  a  whisper. 

I  had  no  need  to  answer  him,  for  anew  the 
child's  cry  rose  in  the  wood  —  sharp,  petulant, 
hungry.  It  came  from  a  thick  clump  of  under- 
growth to  the  left  of  our  night's  lodging,  not  sixty 
yards  away,  and  in  the  half-light  of  the  morning 
had  something  of  the  eerie  about  it. 

John  Splendid  crossed  himself  ere  he  had  mind 
of  his  present  creed,  and  "God  sain  us!  "  he  whis- 
pered ;   "  have  we  here  banshee  or  warlock?  " 

"  I  '11  warrant  we  have  no  more  than  what  we 
seek,"  said  I,  with  a  joyous  heart,  putting  my  tar- 
tan about  me  more  orderly,  and  running  a  hand 
through  my  hair. 

"  I  've  heard  of  unco  uncanny  things  assume  a 
wean's  cry  in  a  wood,"  said  he,  very  dubious  in  his 
aspect. 

I  laughed  at  him,  and  "  Come  away,  'illc^  I 
said;  "here's  the  Provost's  daughter."  And  I 
was  hurrying  in  the  direction  of  the  cry. 

M'lver  put  a  hand  on  my  shoulder. 

"  Canny,  man,  canny;  would  ye  enter  a  lady's 
chamber  (even  the  glade  of  the  wood)  without 
tirling  at  the  pin?  " 


174  JOHN    SPLENDID 

We  stopped,  and  I  softly  sounded  my  curlew- 
call  —  once,  twice,  thrice. 

The  echo  of  the  third  time  had  not  ceased  on 
the  hill  when  out  stepped  Betty.  She  looked  mi- 
raculous tall  and  thin  in  the  haze  of  the  dawn, 
with  the  aspiring  firs  behind  her,  pallid  at  the  face, 
wearied  in  her  carriage,  and  torn  at  her  kirtle  by 
whin  or  thorn.  The  child  clung  at  her  coats,  a 
ruddy  brat,  with  astonishment  stilling  its  whimper. 

For  a  little  the  girl  half  misdoubted  us,  for  the 
wood  behind  us  and  the  still  sombre  west  left  us 
in  a  shadow,  and  there  was  a  tremor  in  her  voice 
as  she  challenged  in  English  — 

"  Is  that  you,  Elrigmore?" 

I  went  forward  at  a  bound,  in  a  stupid  rapture 
that  made  her  shrink  in  alarm;  but  MTver  lin- 
gered in  the  rear,  with  more  discretion  than  my 
relations  to  the  girl  gave  occasion  for. 

"  Friends  !  oh,  am  not  I  glad  to  see  you  ?  "  she 
said  simply,  her  wan  face  lighting  up.  Then  she 
sat  down  on  a  hillock  and  wept  in  her  hands.  I 
gave  her  awkward  comfort,  my  wits  for  once  fail- 
ing me,  my  mind  in  a  confusion,  my  hands,  to  my 
own  sense,  seeming  large,  coarse,  and  in  the  way. 
Yet  to  have  a  finger  on  her  shoulder  was  a  thrill 
to  the  heart,  to  venture  a  hand  on  her  hair  was  a 
passionate  indulgence. 

The  bairn  joined  in  her  tears  till  MTver  took  it 
in  his  arms.  He  had  a  way  with  little  ones  that 
had  much  of  magic  in  it,  and  soon  this  one  was 
nestling  to  his  breast  with  its  sobs  sinking,  an  arm 
round  his  neck. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  175 

More  at  the  pair  of  them  than  at  nie  did  Betty 
look  with  interest  when  her  tears  were  concluded. 

"Am  n't  I  like  myself  this  morning?"  asked 
John,  jocularly,  dandling  the  bairn  in  his  arms. 

Betty  turned  away  without  a  reply,  and  when 
the  child  was  put  down  and  ran  to  her,  she  scarcely 
glanced  on  it,  but  took  it  by  the  hand  and  made 
to  go  before  us,  through  the  underwood  she  had 
come  from. 

"  Here's  my  home,  gentlemen,"  she  said,  "like 
the  castle  of  Colin  Dubh,  with  the  highest  ceiling 
in  the  world  and  the  stars  for  candles." 

We  might  have  passed  it  a  score  of  times  in 
broad  daylight  and  never  guessed  its  secret.  It 
was  the  bieldy  side  of  the  hill.  Two  fir-trees  had 
fallen  at  some  time  in  the  common  fashion  of  wind- 
blown pines,  with  their  roots  clean  out  of  the 
earth,  and  raised  up,  so  that  coming  together  at 
two  edges  they  made  two  sides  of  a  triangle.  To 
add  to  its  efficiency  as  a  hiding-place,  some  young 
firs  grew  at  the  open  third  side  of  the  triangle. 

In  this  confined  little  space  (secure  enough 
from  any  hurried  search)  there  was  still  3.  grcasac/i, 
as  we  call  it,  the  ember  of  a  fire  that  the  girl  had 
kindled  with  a  spark  from  a  flint  the  night  before, 
to  warm  the  child,  and  she  had  kept  it  at  the  low- 
est extremity  short  of  letting  it  die  out  altogether, 
lest  it  should  reveal  her  whereabouts  to  any 
searchers  in  the  wood. 

We  told  her  our  story,  and  she  told  us  hers. 
She  had  fled  on  the  morning  of  the  attack,  in  the 
direction  of  the  castle ;  but  found  her  way  cut  off 


176  JOHN   SPLENDID 

by  a  wing  of  the  enemy,  a  number  of  whom  chased 
her  as  she  ran  with  the  child  on  her  back  up  the 
river-side  to  the  Cairn-baan,  where  she  eUided  her 
pursuers  among  his  lordship's  shrubberies,  and 
found  a  road  to  the  wood.  For  a  week  she  found 
shelter  and  food  in  a  cowherd's  abandoned  bothy 
among  the  alders  of  Tarradubh;  then  hunger  sent 
her  travelling  again,  and  she  reached  Leacainn 
Mhor,  where  she  shared  the  cotter's  house  with  a 
widow  woman  who  went  out  to  the  burn  with  a 
kail-pot  and  returned  no  more,  for  the  tardy  bullet 
found  her.  The  murderers  were  ransacking  the 
house  when  Betty  and  the  child  were  escaping 
through  the  byre.  This  place  of  concealment  in 
Strongara  she  sought  by  the  advice  of  a  Glencoe 
man  well  up  in  years,  who  came  on  her  suddenly, 
and,  touched  by  her  predicament,  told  her  he  and 
his  friends  had  so  well  beaten  that  place,  it  was 
likely  to  escape  further  search. 

"  And  so  I  am  here  with  my  charge,"  said  the 
girl,  affecting  a  gaiety  it  were  hard  for  her  to  feel. 
"  I  could  be  almost  happy  and  content,  if  I  were 
assured  my  father  and  mother  were  safe,  and  the 
rest  of  my  kinsfolk." 

"There's  but  one  of  them  in  all  the  country- 
side," I  said.  "Young  MacLachlan,  and  he's  on 
Dunchuach." 

To  my  critical  scanning  her  check  gave  no  flag. 

"  Oh,  my  cousin  !  "  she  said.  "  I  am  pleased 
that  he  is  safe,  though  I  would  sooner  hear  he 
was  in  Cowal  than  in  Campbell  country." 

"He's  honoured   in    your   interest,    madam,"   I 


JOHN    SPLENDID  177 

could  not  refrain  from  saying,  my  attempt  at  rail- 
lery I  fear  a  rather  forlorn  one. 

She  flushed  at  this,  but  said  never  a  word,  only 
biting  her  nether  lip  and  fondling  the  child. 

I  think  we  put  together  a  cautious  little  fire  and 
cooked  some  oats  from  my  dor  lac  Jl,  though  the 
ecstasy  of  the  meeting  with  the  girl  left  me  no 
great  recollection  of  all  that  happened.  But  in  a 
quiet  part  of  the  afternoon  we  sat  snugly  in  our 
triangle  of  fir  roots,  and  discoursed  of  trifles  that 
had  no  reasonable  relation  to  our  precarious  state. 
Betty  had  almost  an  easy  heart,  the  child  slept  on 
my  comrade's  plaid,  and  I  was  content  to  be  in 
her  company  and  hear  the  little  turns  and  accents 
of  her  voice,  and  watch  the  light  come  and  go  in 
her  face,  and  the  smile  hover,  a  little  wae,  on  her 
lips  at  some  pleasant  tale  of  M'lver's. 

"  How  came  you  round  about  these  parts?  "  she 
asked  - —  for  our  brief  account  of  our  doings  held 
no  explanation  of  our  presence  in  the  wood  of 
Strongara. 

"  Ask  himself  here,"  said  John,  cocking  a  thumb 
over  his  shoulder  at  me;  "I  have  the  poorest 
of  scents  on  the  track  of  a  woman." 

Betty  turned  to  me  with  less  interest  in  the 
question  than  she  had  shown  when  she  addressed 
it  first  to  my  friend. 

I  told  her  what  the  Glencoe  man  had  told  the 
parson,  and  she  sighed.  "  Poor  man  !  "  said  she, 
"  (blessing  with  him  !),  it  was  he  that  sent  me  here 
to  Strongara,  and  gave  me  tinder  and  flint." 

"  Wc  could  better  have  spared  any  of  his  friends, 
12 


178  JOHN   SPLENDID 

then,"  said  I.  "  But  you  would  expect  some  of  us 
to  come  in  search  of  you?  " 

"  I  did,"  she  said  in  a  hesitancy,  and  crimsoning 
in  a  way  that  tingled  me  to  the  heart  with  the 
thought  that  she  meant  no  other  than  myself  She 
gave  a  caressing  touch  to  the  head  of  the  sleeping 
child,  and  turned  to  M'lvcr,  who  lay  on  his  side 
with  his  head  propped  on  an  elbow,  looking  out  on 
the  hill-face. 

"  Do  you  know  the  bairn?  "  she  asked. 

"  No,"  he  said,  with  a  careless  look  where  it  lay 
as  peaceful  as  in  a  cradle  rocked  by  a  mother's 
foot. 

"  It's  the  oe  of  Peggie  Mhor,"  she  said. 

"  So,"  said  he ;  "  poor  dear !  "  and  he  turned 
and  looked  out  again  at  the  snow. 

We  were,  in  spite  of  our  dead  Glencoe  man's 
assurance,  in  as  wicked  a  piece  of  country  as  well 
might  be.  No  snow  had  fallen  since  we  left  Tom- 
breck,  and  from  that  dolorous  ruin  almost  to  our 
present  retreat  was  the  patent  track  of  our 
march. 

"  I  'm  here,  and  I  'm  making  a  fair  show  at  an 
easy  mind,"  said  M'lver;  "but  I've  been  in 
cheerier  circumstances  ere  now." 

"  So  have  I,  for  that  part  of  it,"  said  Betty 
with  spirit,  half  humorously,  half  in  an  obvious 
punctilio. 

"Mistress,"  said  he,  sitting  up  gravely;  "  I  beg 
your  pardon.  Do  you  wonder  if  I  'm  not  in  a 
mood  for  saying  dainty  things?  Our  state 's  pre- 
carious (it's  needless  to  delude    ourselves   other- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  179 

wise),  and  our  friend  Sandy  and  his  bloody  gang 
may  be  at  a  javelin's  throw  from  us  as  we  sit  here. 
I  wish— " 

He  saw  the  girl's  face  betray  her  natural  alarm, 
and  amended  his  words  almost  too  quickly  for  the 
sake  of  the  illusion. 

"Tuts,  tuts!"  he  cried.  "I  forgot  the  wood 
was  searched  before,  and  here  I  'm  putting  a  dismal 
black  face  on  a  drab  business.  We  might  be  a 
thousand  times  worse.  I  might  be  a  clay-cold 
corp  with  my  last  week's  wage  unspent  in  my 
sporran,  as  it  happens  to  be,  and  here  I  'm  to  the 
fore  with  a  four  or  five  MacDonalds  to  my  credit. 
If  I  've  lost  my  mercantile  office  as  mine-manager 
(curse  your  trades  and  callings  !)  my  sword  is  left 
me  ;  you  have  equal  fortune,  Elrigmore  ;  and  you, 
Mistress  Brown,  have  them  you  love  spared  to 
you." 

Again  the  girl  blushed  most  fiercely.  "  Thank 
God  !  Thank  God  !  "  she  cried  in  a  stifled  ecstasy, 
"  and  O !  but  I  'm  grateful."  And  anew  she 
fondled  the  little  bye-blow  as  it  lay  with  its  sunny 
hair  on  the  soldier's  plaid. 

John  glanced  at  her  from  the  corners  of  his  eyes 
with  a  new  expression,  and  asked  her  if  she  was 
fond  of  bairns. 

"Need  you  ask  that  of  a  woman?"  she  said. 
"  But  for  the  company  of  this  one  on  my  wander- 
ings, my  heart  had  failed  me  a  hundred  times  a  day. 
It  was  seeing  it  so  helpless  that  gave  me  my  cour- 
age :  the  dark  at  night  in  the  bothy  and  the  cot 
and  the  moaning  wind  of  this  lone  spot  had  sent 


i8o  JOHN   SPLENDID 

me  crazy  if  I  had  not  this  Httle  one's  hand  in  mine, 
and  its  breath  in  my  hair  as  we  lay  together." 

"  To  me,"  said  John,  "  they  're  Hke  flowers,  and 
that 's  the  long  and  the  short  of  it." 

"  You  're  like  most  men,  I  suppose,"  said  Betty, 
archly ;  "  fond  of  them  in  the  abstract,  and  with 
small  patience  for  the  individuals  of  them.  This 
one  now  —  you  would  not  take  half  the  trouble 
with  him  I  found  a  delight  in.  But  the  nursing  of 
bairns  —  even  their  own  —  is  not  a  soldier's 
business." 

"No,  perhaps  not,"  said  MTver,  surveying  her 
gravely ;  "  and  yet  I  've  seen  a  soldier,  a  rough 
hired  cavalier,  take  a  wonderful  degree  of  trouble 
about  a  duddy  little  bairn  of  the  enemy  in  the 
enemy's  country.  He  was  struck  —  as  he  told  me 
after  —  by  the  gash  look  of  it  sitting  in  a  scene  of 
carnage,  orphaned,  without  the  sense  of  it,  and  he 
carried  it  before  him  on  the  saddle  for  a  many 
leagues'  march  till  he  found  a  peaceful  wayside 
cottage,  where  he  gave  it  in  the  charge  of  as 
honest  a  woman,  to  all  appearance,  as  these  parts 
could  boast.  He  might  even  —  for  all  I  know  to 
the  contrary  — have  fairly  bought  her  attention  for 
it  by  a  season's  paying  of  the  kreutzers,  and  I 
know  it  cost  him  a  duel  with  a  fool  who  mocked 
the  sentiment  of  the  deed." 

"  I  hope  so  brave  and  good  a  man  was  none  the 
worse  for  his  duel  in  a  cause  so  noble,"  said  the 
girl,  softly. 

"Neither  greatly  brave  nor  middling  good,"  said 
John,  laughing,  "  at  least  to   my  way  of  thinking, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  i8i 

and  I  know  him  well.  But  he  was  no  poorer  but 
by  the  kreutzers  for  his  advocacy  of  an  orphan 
bairn." 

"  I  think  I  know  the  man,"  said  I,  innocently, 
"  and  his  name  would  be  John." 

"  And  John  or  George,"  said  the  girl,  "  I  could 
love  him  for  his  story." 

M'lver  lifted  a  tress  of  the  sleeping  child's  hair 
and  toyed  with  it  between  his  fingers. 

"My  dear,  my  dear!"  said  he;  "  it 's  a  foolish 
thing  to  judge  a  man's  character  by  a  trifle  like 
yon :  he  's  a  poor  creature  who  has  not  his  fine 
impulse  now  and  then ;  and  the  man  I  speak  of,  as 
like  as  not,  was  dirli ng  a  wanton  flagon  (or  maybe 
waur)  ere  nightfall,  or  slaying  with  cruelty  and  zest 
the  bairn's  uncles  in  the  next  walled  town  he  came 
to.  At  another  mood  he  would  perhaps  balance 
this  lock  of  hair  against  a  company  of  burghers 
but  fighting  for  their  own  fire  end." 

"  The  hair  is  not  unlike  your  own,"  said  Betty, 
comparing  with  quick  eyes  the  curl  he  held  and 
the  curls  that  escaped  from  under  the  edge  of  his 
flat  blue  bonnet. 

"  May  every  hair  of  his  be  a  candle  to  light  him 
safely  through  a  mirk  and  dangerous  world,"  said 
he,  and  he  began  to  whittle  assiduously  at  a  stick, 
with  a  little  black  oxter-knife  he  lugged  from  his 
coat. 

"  Amen  !  "  said  the  girl,  bravely,  "  but  he  were 
better  with  the  guidance  of  a  good  father,  and  that 
there  seems  small  likelihood  of  his  enjoying  — 
poor  thing !  " 


i82  JOHN    SPLENDID 

A  constraint  fell  on  us ;  it  may  have  been 
there  before,  but  only  now  I  felt  it  myself. 
I  changed  the  conversation,  thinking  that  perhaps 
the  child's  case  was  too  delicate  a  subject,  but 
unhappily  made  the  plundering  of  our  glens  my 
dolorous  text,  and  gloom  fell  like  a  mort-cloth 
on  our  little  company.  If  my  friend  was  easily  up- 
lifted, made  buoyantly  cheerful  by  the  least  acci- 
dent of  life,  he  was  as  prone  to  a  hellish  melancholy 
when  fate  lay  low.  For  the  rest  of  the  afternoon, 
he  was  ever  staving  with  a  gloomy  brow  about  the 
neighbourhood,  keeping  an  eye,  as  he  said,  to  the 
possible  chance  of  the  enemy. 

Left  thus  for  long  spaces  in  the  company  of 
Betty  and  the  child,  that  daffed  and  croddled  about 
her,  and  even  became  warmly  friendly  with  me  for 
the  sake  of  my  Paris  watch  and  my  glittering  waist- 
coat buttons,  I  made  many  gallant  attempts  to  get 
on  my  old  easy  footing.  That  was  the  wonder  of  it : 
when  my  interest  in  her  was  at  the  lukewarm,  I 
could  face  her  repartee  with  as  good  as  she  gave ; 
now  that  I  loved  her  (to  say  the  word  and  be  done 
with  it),  my  words  must  be  picked  and  chosen  and 
my  tongue  must  stammer  in  a  contemptible  awk- 
wardness. Nor  was  she,  apparently,  quite  at  her 
ease,  for  when  our  talk  came  at  any  point  too  close 
on  her  own  person,  she  was  at  great  pains  adroitly 
to  change  it  to  other  directions. 

I  never,  in  all  my  life,  saw  a  child  so  mucklc 
made  use  of.  It  seemed,  by  the  most  wonderful 
of  chances,  to  be  ever  needing  soothing  or  scold- 
ing or  kissing  or  running  after  in  the  snow,  when  I 


JOHN    SPLENDID  183 

had  a  word  to  say  upon  the  human  affections,  or  a 
comphment  to  pay  upon  some  grace  of  its  most 
assiduous  nurse. 

"I'm  afraid,"  said  Betty  at  last,  "you  learned 
some  courtiers'  flatteries  and  coquetries  in  your 
travels.  You  should  have  taken  the  lesson  like 
your  friend  and  fellow-cavalier  M'lvcr,  and  got  the 
trick  of  keeping  a  calm  heart." 

"  M'lver  !  "  I  cried.  "  He  's  an  old  hand  at  the 
business." 

She  put  her  lips  to  the  child's  neck  and  kissed  it 
tumultuously. 

"  Not —  not  at  the  trade  of  lovier?  "  she  asked 
after  a  while,  carelessly  keeping  up  the  crack. 

"  Oh  no  !  "  I  said  laughing.  "  He  's  a  most 
religious  man." 

"  I  would  hardly  say  so  much,"  she  answered 
coldly;  "for  there  have  been  tales  —  some  idle, 
some  otherwise  —  about  him,  but  I  think  his  friend 
should  be  last  to  hint  at  any  scandal." 

Good  heavens  !  here  was  a  surprise  for  one  who 
had  no  more  notion  of  traducing  his  friend  than  of 
miscalling  the  Shorter  Catechism.  The  charge  stuck 
in  my  gizzard.  I  fumed  and  sweat,  speechless  at 
the  injustice  of  it,  while  the  girl  held  herself  more 
aloof  than  ever,  busy  preparing  for  our  evening 
meal. 

I  had  no  time  to  put  myself  right  in  her  estimate 
of  me  before  MTver  came  back  from  his  airing 
with  an  alarming  story. 

"It's  time  we  were  taking  our  feet  from  here," 
he  cried,  running  up  to  us.     "  I  've   been  up  on 


i84  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Meall  Ruadh  there,  and  I  see  the  whole  country- 
side 's  in  a  confusion.  Pipers  are  blowing  away 
down  the  Glen  and  guns  are  firing;  if  it's  not  a 
muster  of  the  enemy  preparatory  to  their  quitting 
the  country,  it 's  a  call  to  a  more  particular  search 
in  the  hills  and  woods.  Anyway  we  must  be 
bundling." 

He  hurriedly  stamped  out  the  fire,  that  smoked 
a  faint  blue  reek  which  might  have  advertised  our 
whereabouts,  and  Betty  clutched  the  child  to  her 
arms,  her  face  again  taking  the  hue  of  hunt  and 
fear  she  wore  when  we  first  set  eyes  on  her  in  the 
morning. 

"  Where  is  safety?  "  she  asked,  hopelessly.  "  Is 
there  a  shecp-fank  or  a  sheiling-bothy  in  Argile 
that  is  not  at  the  mercy  of  those  bloodhounds?  " 

"  If  it  was  n't  for  the  snow  on  the  ground,"  said 
M'lver,  "  I  could  find  a  score  of  safe  enough  hid- 
ings between  here  and  Beannan.  Heavens !  " 
he  added,  "  when  I  think  on  it,  the  Beannan  itself 
is  the  place  for  us ;  it 's  the  one  safe  spot  we  can 
reach  by  going  through  the  woods  without  leaving 
any  trace,  if  we  keep  under  the  trees  and  in  the 
bed  of  the  burn." 

We  took  the  bairn  in  turns,  M'lvcr  and  I,  and 
the  four  of  us  set  out  for  the  oi)posite  side  of 
Glenaora  for  the  eas  or  gully  called  the  Beannan, 
tliat  lay  out  of  any  route  likely  to  be  followed  by 
the  enemy,  whether  their  object  was  a  retreat  or  a 
hunting.  But  we  were  never  to  reach  this  place 
of  refuge,  as  it  happened;  for  M'lver,  leading 
down  the  burn  by  a  yard  or  two,  had  put  his  foot 


JOHN   SPLENDID  185 

on  the  path  running  through  the  pass  beside  the 
three  bridges,  when  he  pulled  back,  blenching 
more  in  chagrin  than  apprehension. 

"  Here  they  are,"  he  said.  "  We  're  too  late ; 
there 's  a  band  of  them  on  the  march  up  this 
way." 

At  our  back  was  the  burned  ruin  of  a  house  that 
had  belonged  to  a  shepherd,  who  was  the  first  to 
flee  to  the  town  when  the  invaders  came.  Its  byre 
was  almost  intact,  and  we  ran  to  if  up  the  burn  as 
fast  as  we  could,  and  concealed  ourselves  in  the 
dark  interior.  Birds  came  chirping  under  the  eaves 
of  thatch  and  by  the  vent-holes,  and  made  so 
much  bickering  to  find  us  in  their  sanctuary  that 
we  feared  the  bye-passers,  who  were  within  a 
whisper  of  our  hiding,  would  be  surely  attracted. 
Band  after  band  of  the  enemy  passed,  laden  in  the 
most  extraordinary  degree  with  the  spoil  of  war. 
They  had  only  a  rough  sort  of  discipline  in  their 
retirement:  the  captains  or  chieftains  marched 
together,  leaving  the  companies  to  straggle  as  they 
might,  for  was  not  the  country  deserted  by  every 
living  body  but  themselves?  In  van  of  them  they 
drove  several  hundreds  of  black  and  red  cattle, 
and  with  the  aid  of  some  rough  ponies,  that  pulled 
such  sledges  (called  earns)  as  are  used  for  the 
hauling  home  of  peat  on  hilly  land,  they  were 
conveying  huge  quantities  of  household  plenishing 
and  the  merchandise  of  the  biu'gh  town. 

Now  we  had  more  opportunity  of  seeing  those 
coarse  savage  forces  than  on  any  occasion  since 
they  came  to  Argile,  for  the  whole  of  them  had 


i86  JOHN   SPLENDID 

mustered  at  Inncraora  after  scouring  the  shire, 
and  were  on  their  march  out  of  the  country  to  the 
north,  fatter  men  and  better  put  on  than  when 
they  came.  Among  them  were  numerous  tartans, 
either  as  kilt,  trews,  or  plaid ;  the  bonnet  was  uni- 
versal, except  that  some  of  the  officers  wore  steel 
helms,  with  a  feather  tip  in  them,  and  a  clan  badge 
of  heather  or  whin  or  moss,  and  the  dry  oak-stalk 
whimsy  of  Montrose.  They  had  come  bare -footed 
and  bare-buttocT<ed  (many  of  the  privates  of  them) 
to  Campbell  country ;  now,  as  I  say,  they  were 
very  snod,  the  scurviest  of  the  knaves  set  up  ^^■ith 
his  hosen  and  brogues.  Sturdy  and  black,  or  lank 
and  white-haired  like  the  old  sea-rovers,  were  they, 
with  few  among  them  that  ever  felt  the  razor  edge, 
so  that  the  hair  coated  them  to  the  very  eyeholes, 
and  they  looked  like  wolves.  The  pipers,  of  whom 
there  were  three,  were  blasting  lustily  at  Clan- 
ranald's  march,  when  they  came  up  the  lower  part 
of  the  Glen,  according  to  MTver,  who  had  heard 
them  from  Meall  Ruadh ;  but  now  the  music  was 
stopped,  and  all  were  intent  upon  driving  the  cattle 
or  watching  their  stolen  gear,  for  doubtless  among 
such  thieves  there  was  not  as  much  honour  as 
would  prevent  one  from  picking  his  neighbour's 
sporran. 

We  lay  buried  to  the  head  in  bracken  that  filled 
one  side  of  the  byre,  and  keeked  through  the  plen- 
teous holes  in  the  dry-stone  wall  at  the  passing 
army.  Long  gaps  were  between  the  several  clans, 
and  the  Irish  came  last.  It  seemed  —  they  moved 
so  slowly  on  account  of  the  cattle — that  the  end 


JOHN   SPLENDID  187 

of  the  cavalcade  was  never  to  come;  but  at  length 
came  the  baggage  and  the  staff  of  Montrose  him- 
self Then  I  got  my  first  look  of  the  man  whose 
name  stinks  in  the  bores'  snout  to  this  day.  A 
fellow  about  thirty-three  years  of  age,  of  mid 
height,  hair  of  a  very  dark  red,  hanging  in  a  thick 
fell  on  the  shoulder  of  the  tartan  jacket  (for  he 
wore  no  armour),  with  a  keen  scrutinising  eye,  and 
his  beard  trimmed  in  the  foreign  vein.  He  sat  his 
horse  with  considerable  ease  and  grace,  and  was 
surrounded  by  half-a-dozen  of  the  chiefs  who  had 
come  under  his  banner.  The  most  notable-looking 
of  these  was  Alasdair  MacDonald,  the  Major- 
General,  an  uncouth  dog,  but  a  better  general,  as  I 
learned  later,  than  ever  God  or  practice  made  James 
Grahame  of  Montrose ;  with  John  of  Moidart,  the 
Captain  of  Clanranald,  Donald  Glas  MacRanald  of 
Keppoch,  and  laird  of  Glencoe,  Stuart  of  Appin, 
and  one  of  the  Knoydart  house,  all  of  whilk  we 
distinguished  by  their  tartan  and  badge. 

In  the  mien  of  these  savage  chiefs  there  was 
great  elation  that  Montrose  had  little  share  in,  to 
all  appearance.  He  rode  moodily,  and  when  fair 
opposite  our  place  of  concealment  he  stopped  his 
horse  as  if  to  quit  the  sell,  but  more  likely  to  get, 
for  a  little,  out  of  the  immediate  company  of  his 
lawless  troops.  None  of  those  home-returning 
Gaels  paid  heed  to  his  pause,  for  they  were  more 
Alasdair  MacDonald's  men  than  his ;  MacDonald 
brought  them  to  the  lair  of  the  boar,  MacDonald 
glutted  their  Highland  thirst  for  Campbell  blood, 
MacDonald  had  compelled  this  raid  in  spite  of  the 


1 88  JOHN   SPLENDID 

protests  of  the  noble  man   who  held   the  King's 
Commission  and  seal. 

For  some  minutes  his  lordship  stood  alone  on 
the  pathway.  The  house  where  we  lay  was  but 
one,  and  the  meanest,  among  a  numerous  cluster 
of  such  drear  memorials  of  a  black  business,  and  it 
was  easy  to  believe  this  generalissimo  had  some 
gloomy  thoughts  as  he  gazed  on  the  work  he  had 
lent  consent  to.  He  looked  at  the  ruins  and  he 
looked  up  the  pass  at  his  barbarians,  and  shrugged 
his  shoulders  with  a  contempt  there  was  no  mis- 
taking. 

"  I  could  bring  him  down  like  a  capercailzie," 
said  M'lver  coolly,  running  his  eye  along  his  pistol 
and  cocking  it  through  his  keek-hole. 

"  For  God's  sake,  don't  shoot !  "  I  said,  and  he 
laughed  quietly. 

"  Is  there  anything  in  my  general  deportment, 
Colin,  that  makes  ye  think  me  an  assassin  or  an 
idiot?  I  never  wantonly  shot  an  unsuspecting 
enemy,  and  I  'm  little  likely  to  shoot  Montrose  and 
have  a  woman  and  bairn  suffer  the  worst  for  a 
stupid   moment  of  glory." 

As  ill  luck  would  have  it,  the  bairn,  that  had 
been  playing  peacefully  in  the  dusk,  at  this  critical 
minute  let  up  a  cry  Montrose  plainly  heard. 

"We're  lost,  we 're  lost,"  said  Betty,  trembling 
till  the  crisp  dry  bracken  rustled  about  her,  and 
she  was  for  instant  flight. 

"  If  we're  lost,  there  's  a  marquis  will  go  travel- 
ling with  us,"  said  M'lver,  covering  his  lordship's 
heart  with  his  pistol. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  189 

Had  Montrose  given  the  slightest  sign  that  he 
intended  to  call  back  his  men  to  tread  out  this  last 
flicker  of  life  in  Aora  Glen  he  would  never  have 
died  on  the  gibbet  at  the  Grassmarket  of  Dunedin. 
Years  after,  when  Grahame  met  his  doom  (with 
much  more  courtliness  and  dignity  than  I  could 
have  given  him  credit  for),  M'lver  would  hark 
back  on  his  narrow  escape  at  the  end  of  the 
raiding. 

"  I  had  his  life  in  the  crook  of  my  finger,"  he 
would  say;  "had  I  acted  on  my  first  thought, 
Clan  Campbell  would  never  have  lost  Inverlochy, 
but  bha  e  air  an  dan,  what  will  be  will  be,  and 
Grahame's  fate  was  not  in  the  crook  of  my  finge-r, 
though  so  I  might  think  it.  Are  n't  we  the  fools 
to  fancy  sometimes  our  human  wills  decide  the 
course  of  fate  and  the  conclusions  of  circum- 
stances? From  the  beginning  of  time,  my  Lord 
Marquis  of  Montrose  was  meant  for  the  scaffold." 

Montrose,  when  he  heard  the  child's  cry,  only 
looked  to  either  hand  to  see  that  none  of  his 
friends  heard  it,  and  finding  there  was  no  one 
near  him,  took  oft*  his  Highland  bonnet,  lightly, 
to  the  house  where  he  jaloused  there  was  a  woman 
with  the  wean,  and  passed  slowly  on  his  way. 

"  It 's  so  honest  an  act,"  said  John,  pulling  in  his 
pistol,  "  that  I  would  be  a  knave  to  advantage 
myself  of  the  occasion." 

A  generous  act  enough.  I  daresay  there  were 
few  in  the  following  of  James  Grahame  would 
have  borne  such  a  humane  part  at  the  end  of  a 
bloody  business ;   and  I   never  heard  our  people 


190  JOHN   SPLENDID 

cry  down  the  name  of  Montrose  (bitter  foe  to 
me  and  mine)  but  I  minded  to  his  credit  that  he 
had  a  compassionate  ear  for  a  child's  cry  in  the 
ruined  hut  of  Aora  Glen. 

Montrose  gave  no  hint  to  his  staff  of  what  he 
had  heard,  for  when  he  joined  them,  he  nor  they 
turned  round  to  look  behind.  Before  us  now,  free 
and  open,  lay  the  way  to  Inncraora.  We  got 
down  before  the  dusk  fell,  and  were  the  first  of 
its  returning  inhabitants  to  behold  what  a  scandal 
of  charred  houses  and  robbed  chests  the  Athole 
and  Antrim  caterans  had  left  us. 

In  the  gray  light  the  place  lay  tenantless  and 
melancholy,  the  snow  of  the  silent  street  and  lane 
trodden  to  a  slush,  the  evening  star  peeping  be- 
tween the  black  roof-timbers,  the  windows  lozen- 
less,  the  doors  burned  out  or  hanging  off  their 
hinges.  Before  the  better  houses  were  piles  of 
goods  and  gear  turned  out  on  the  causeway.  They 
had  been  turned  about  by  pike-handles  and  trod- 
den upon  with  contemptuous  heels,  and  the  pick 
of  the  plenishing  was  gone.  Though  upon  the 
rear  of  the  kirk  there  were  two  great  mounds,  that 
showed  us  where  friend  and  foe  had  been  buried, 
that  solemn  memorial  was  not  so  poignant  to  the 
heart  as  the  poor  relics  of  the  homes  gutted  and 
sacked.  The  Provost's  tenement,  of  all  the  lesser 
houses  in  the  burgh,  was  the  -only  one  that  stood 
in  its  outer  entirety,  its  arched  ceils  proof  against 
the  malevolent  fire.  Yet  its  windows  gaped  black 
and  empty.  The  tide  was  in  close  on  the  breast-wall 
behind,  and  the  sound  of  it  came  up  and  moaned 


JOHN   SPLENDID  191 

in   the   close   like  the  sough  of  a  sea-shell   held 
against  the  ear. 

We  stood  in  the  close,  the  three  of  us  (the  bairn 
clinging  in  wonder  to  the  girl's  gown),  with  never 
a  word  for  a  space,  and  that  sough  of  the  sea  was 
almost  a  coronach. 


192  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XV 

In  a  few  hours,  as  it  were,  the  news  that  the  enemy 
had  left  the  country  was  put  about  the  shire,  and 
people  returned  to  pick  up  the  loose  ends  of  the 
"^threads  of  family  and  affairs.  Next  day  my  lord 
the  Marquis  came  round  Lochlong  and  Glencroe 
in  a  huge  chariot  with  four  wheels,  the  first  we  had 
ever  seen  in  these  parts,  a  manner  of  travel  incum- 
bent upon  him  because  of  a  raxed  shoulder  he  had 
met  with  at  Dunbarton.  He  came  back  to  a  poor 
reception  :  the  vestiges  of  his  country's  most  bitter 
extremity  were  on  every  hand,  and,  what  was  bound 
to  be  embarrassing  to  any  nobleman  of  spirit,  there 
was  that  in  the  looks  and  comportment  of  his  clans- 
men that  must  have  given  MacCailein  some  un- 
pleasant thought. 

Behind  his  lordship  came  eleven  hundred  Low- 
land levies  that  had  been  with  Baillie  in  England, 
and  to  command  them  came  his  cousin,  Sir  Duncan 
Campbell  of  Auchinbreac,  luckily  new  over  from 
Ireland,  and  in  the  spirit  for  campaigning.  A  fiery 
cross  was  sent  round  the  clan,  that  in  better  times 
should  easily  have  mustered  five  thousand  of  the 
prettiest  lads  ever  trod  heather ;  but  it  brought 
only  a  remnant  of  a  thousand,  and  the  very  best 
that  would  have  been  welcome  under  the  galley 


JOHN    SPLENDID  193 

flag  were  too  far  afield  for  the  summons  to  reach 
them  in  time.  But  every  well-affected  branch  of 
Clan  Campbell  sent  its  gentlemen  to  officer  our 
brigade. 

A  parley  of  war  held  in  the  castle  determined  on 
immediate  pursuit  of  Montrose  to  Lochaber,  keep- 
ing within  easy  distance,  but  without  attacking  till 
he  was  checked  in  front  by  troops  that  had  gone 
up  to  flank  him  by  way  of  Stirling.  I  was  at 
the  council,  but  had  little  to  do  with  its  decision, 
though  the  word  of  M'lver  and  myself  (as  was 
due  to  cavaliers  of  experience)  was  invited  with 
respect. 

We  were  to  march  in  two  days ;  and  as  I  had 
neither  house  nor  ha'  to  shelter  me,  seeing  the  old 
place  up  the  glen  was  even  more  of  a  ruin  than  in 
Donald  Gorm's  troubles,  when  the  very  roof-tree 
was  thrown  in  Dhuloch,  I  shared  quarters  with 
M'lver  in  the  castle,  where  every  available  corner 
was  occupied  by  his  lordship's  guests. 

When  these  other  guests  were  bedded,  and  the 
house  in  all  our  wing  of  it  was  still,  my  comrade 
and  I  sat  down  to  a  tasse  of  brandy  in  our  cham- 
ber, almost  blythe,  as  you  would  say,  at  the  pros- 
pect of  coming  to  blows  with  our  country's  spoilers. 
We  were  in  the  midst  of  a  most  genial  crack  when 
came  a  faint  rap  at  the  door,  and  in  steps  the  good- 
man,  as  solemn  as  a  thunder-cloud,  in  spite  of  the 
wan  smile  he  fixed  upon  his  countenance.  He 
bore  his  arm  out  of  his  sleeve  in  a  sling,  and  his 
hair  was  untrim,  and  for  once  a  most  fastidious 
nobleman  was  anything  but  perjink. 

13 


194  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"I  cry  pardon,  gentlemen!  "  he  said  in  Gaelic, 
"  for  breaking  in  on  my  guests'  privacy;  but  I'm 
in  no  humour  for  sleeping,  and  I  thought  you 
might  have  a  spare  glass  for  a  friend." 

"  It 's  your  welcome,  Argile,"  said  I,  putting  a 
wand  chair  to  the  front  for  him.  He  sat  himself 
down  in  it  with  a  sigh  of  utter  weariness,  and  ner- 
vously poking  the  logs  on  the  fire  with  a  purring- 
iron,  looked  sadly  about  the  chamber. 

It  was  his  wife's  tiring-room,  or  closet,  or  some- 
thing of  that  nature,  fitted  up  hastily  for  our  accom- 
modation, and  there  were  signs  of  a  woman's  dainty 
hand  and  occupation  about  it.  The  floor  was  car- 
peted, the  wall  was  hung  with  arras;  a  varnish 
'scrutoire,  some  sweet-wood  boxes,  two  little  stat- 
ues of  marble,  two  raised  silver  candlesticks  with 
snuffers  conform,  broidery-work  unfinished,  and 
my  lord's  picture,  in  a  little  gilded  frame  hanging 
over  a  dressing-table,  were  among  its  womanly 
plenishing. 

"  Well,  coz,"  said  his  lordship,  breaking  an  awk- 
ward silence,  "  we  have  an  enormous  and  dastardly 
deed  here  to  avenge." 

"  We  have  that !  "  said  MTver.  "  It 's  a  conso- 
lation that  we  are  in  the  mood  and  in  the  position 
to  set  about  paying  the  debt.  Before  the  glad 
news  came  of  your  return,  I  was  half  afraid  that 
oin-  quarry  would  be  too  far  gone  ere  we  set  loose 
the  dogs  on  him.  Luckily  he  can  be  little  farther 
than  Glcnurchy  now.  Elrigmore  and  I  had  the 
honour  to  see  the  visitors  make  their  departure. 
They    carried    so    much    stolen    gear,  and    drove 


JOHN   SPLENDID  195 

so  big  a  prize  of  cattle,  that  I  would  not  give 
them  more  than  a  twenty  miles'  march  to  the 
day." 

"Will  they  hang  together,  do  you  think?" 
asked  his  lordship,  fingering  a  crystal  bottle  for 
essence  that  lay  on  the  'scrutoire. 

"  I  misdoubt  it,"  said  M'lvcr.  "You  know  the 
stuff,  MacCailcin?  He  may  have  his  Irish  still; 
but  I  '11  wager  the  MacDonalds,  the  Stewarts,  and 
all  the  rest  of  that  reiving  crowd  are  off  to  their 
holds,  like  the  banditti  they  are,  with  their  booty. 
A  company  of  pikes  on  the  rear  of  him,  as  like  as 
not,  would  settle  his  business." 

The  Marquis,  besides  his  dishevelment,  was  look- 
ing very  lean  and  pale.  I  am  wrong  if  I  had  not 
before  me  a  man  who  had  not  slept  a  sound  night's 
sleep  in  his  naked  bed  since  the  point  of  war  beat 
under  his  castle  window. 

"Your  arm,  my  lord,"  I  said  in  a  pause  of  his 
conversation  with  M'lvcr,  "  is  it  a  fashions  injury? 
You  look  off  your  ordinary." 

"  I  do,"  he  said.  "  I  daresay  I  do,  and  I  wish 
to  God  it  was  only  this  raxed  arm  that  was  the 
worst  of  my  ailment." 

His  face  burned  up  red  in  the  candle-light,  his 
nostrils  swelled,  and  he  rose  in  his  chair.  A  small 
table  was  between  us.  He  put  his  uninjured  hand 
on  it  to  steady  himself,  and  leaned  over  to  me  to 
make  his  words  more  weighty  for  my  ear. 

"  Do  you  know,"  he  added,  "  I  'm  Archibald, 
Marquis  of  Argile,  and  under  the  cope  and  canopy 
of  heaven  this  January  night  there  's  not  a  creature 


196  JOHN   SPLENDID 

of  God's  making  more  down  in  the  heart  and 
degraded  than  1?  If  the  humblest  servant  in  my 
house  pointed  a  scornful  finger  at  me  and  cried 
Gioltar !  (coward)  I  would  bow  my  head.  Ay, 
ay !  it 's  good  of  you,  sir,  to  shake  a  dissenting 
head;  but  I'm  a  chief  discredited.  I  know  it, 
man.  I  see  it  in  the  faces  about  me.  I  saw  it  at 
Roseneath,  when  my  very  gardener  fumbled,  and 
refused  to  touch  his  bonnet  when  I  left.  I  saw  it 
to-night  at  my  own  table,  when  the  company  talked 
of  what  they  should  do,  and  what  my  men  should 
do,  and  said  never  a  word  of  what  was  to  be  ex- 
pected of  MacCailein  Mor." 

"  I  think,  my  lord,"  I  cried,  "  that  you  're  exag- 
gerating a  very  small  affair." 

"  Small  affair  !  "  he  said  (and  he  wetted  his  lips 
with  his  tongue  before  the  words  came).  "  Small 
affair !  Hell's  flame !  is  there  anything  smaller 
than  the  self-esteem  of  a  man  who  by  some  in- 
fernal quirk  of  his  nature  turns  his  back  on  his 
most  manifest  duty  —  leaves  the  blood  of  his  blood 
and  the  skin  of  his  skin  to  perish  for  want  of  his 
guidance  and  encouragement,  and  wakens  at  morn- 
ing to  find  it  no  black  nightmare  but  the  horrible 
fact?     Answer  me  that,  Elrigmore  !  " 

"Tut,  tut,"  said  M'lver,  pouring  his  cousin  a 
glass;  "you're  in  the  xapours,  and  need  a  good 
night's  sleep.  There  's  no  one  in  Argile  dare  ques- 
tion your  spirit,  whatever  they  may  think  of  your 
policy." 

Argile  relapsed  into  his  chair,  and  looked  with  a 
pitiful  eye  at  his  kinsman. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  197 

"  My  good  Iain,"  he  said,  "  do  you  ken  the  old 
Lochow  wife's  story  of  the  two  daws  ?  '  Thou 
didst  well,'  said  the  one,  'though  thy  wings  are 
cut;  thou  didst  well  to  do  as  I  told  thee.'  I'm 
not  blaming  you  ;  you  are  a  brave  man  of  your 
own  hands,  and  a  middling"  honest  man  too,  as  hon- 
esty goes  among  mercenaries ;  but  your  tongue  's 
plausible,  plausible,  and  you  are  the  devil's  coun- 
sellor to  any  other  man  who  slackens  his  will  by 
so  much  as  a  finger-length." 

M'lver  took  on  a  set  stern  jaw,  and  looked  his 
chief  very  dourly  in  the  face. 

"  My  Lord  of  Argile,"  he  said,  "  you  're  my 
cousin-german,  and  you  're  in  a  despondent  key, 
and  small  blame  to  you  with  your  lands  smoking 
about  you  from  Cruachan  to  Kilmartin  ;  but  if  you 
were  King  Tearlach  himself,  I  would  take  no  insult 
from  you.  Do  you  charge  me  with  any  of  your 
misfortunes?  " 

"  I  charge  you  with  nothing,  John,"  said  Argile, 
wearily.  "  I  'm  only  saying  that  at  a  time  of  stress, 
when  there  's  a  conflict  in  a  man's  mind  between 
ease  and  exertion,  you  're  not  the  best  of  con- 
sciences. Are  we  two  going  to  quarrel  about  a 
phrase  while  our  clansmen's  blood  is  crying  from 
the  sod?  Sit  down,  sir;  sit  down,  if  it  please  you," 
he  said  more  sternly,  the  scowl  that  gave  him  the 
gniamacJi  reputation  coming  on  his  face  ;  "sit  down, 
if  it  please  you,  and  instead  of  ruffling  up  like  the 
bubbly-jock  over  words,  tell  me  if  you  can  how  to 
save  a  reputation  from  the  gutter.  If  it  was  not 
that  I  know  1  have  your  love,  do  you  think  I  should 


198  JOHN   SPLENDID 

be  laying  my  heart  bare  here  and  now?  You  have 
known  me  some  time  now,  M'lver  —  did  you  ever 
find  me  without  some  reserve  in  my  most  intimate 
speech?  Did  you  ever  hear  me  say  two  words 
that  I  had  not  a  third  in  the  background  to  bring 
forward  if  the  policy  of  the  moment  called  for  it?  " 

M'lver  laughed  slyly,  and  hesitated  to  make  any 
answer. 

"It's  a  simple  question,"  said  the  Marquis; 
"  am  I  to  think  it  needs  too  straightforward  an 
answer  for  John  Splendid  to  give  it?" 

"  I  'm  as  frank  as  my  neighbours,"  said  M'lver. 

"  Well,  sir,  do  not  check  the  current  of  my 
candour  by  any  picking  and  choosing  of  words. 
I  ask  if  you  have  ever  found  me  with  the  babbling 
and  unbridled  tongue  of  a  fool  in  my  mouth,  giv- 
ing my  bottom-most  thought  to  the  wind  and  the 
street?  " 

**  You  were  no  Gael  if  you  did,  my  lord.  That 's 
the  sin  of  the  shallow  wit,  I  aye  kept  a  bit 
thought  of  my  own  in  the  corner  of  my  vest." 

MacCailein  sighed,  and  the  stem  of  the  beaker 
he  was  fingering  broke  in  his  nervous  fingers.  He 
threw  the  fragments  with  an  impatient  cry  into  the 
fireplace. 

"It's  the  only  weakness  of  our  religion  (God 
pardon  the  sin  of  hinting  at  any  want  in  that 
same !)  that  we  have  no  chance  of  laying  the 
heart  bare  to  mortal  man.  Many  a  time  I  could 
wish  for  the  salving  influence  of  the  confessional, 
even  without  the  tibsolution  to  follow." 

"  I  think,"  said  John  Splendid,  "  it  would  be  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  199 

strange  day  when  MacCailein  Mor,  Marquis  of 
Argile,  would  ask  or  need  shriving  from  anything 
or  any  one.  There  was  never  a  priest  or  vicar  in 
the  shire  you  could  n't  twist  the  neck  of." 

The  Marquis  turned  to  me  with  a  vexed  toss  of 
his  shoulder.  "  It 's  a  hopeless  task  to  look  for 
a  pagan's  backbone,"  said  he.  "  Come,  I  '11  con- 
fess. I  dare  not  hint  at  my  truant  thought  to 
Auchinbreac  or  before  any  of  these  fiery  officers 
of  mine,  who  fear  perhaps  more  than  they  love 
me.  At  the  black  tale  of  my  weakness  they 
would  make  no  allowance  for  my  courage  as  the 
same  was  shown  before." 

"Your  courage,  sir,"  said  I,  "has  been  proved; 
it  is  the  inheritance  of  your  race.  But  I  dare  not 
strain  my  conscience,  my  lord,  much  as  I  love  and 
honour  your  house,  to  say  I  could  comprehend  or 
concur  in  the  extraordinary  retirement  you  made 
from  these  parts  when  our  need  for  your  presence 
was  the  sorest." 

"  I  thank  you  for  that,  Elrigmore,"  said  his 
lordship,  cordially.  "  You  say  no  more  now  than 
you  showed  by  your  face  (and  perhaps  said  too) 
on  the  night  the  beacon  flamed  on  Dunchuach. 
To  show  that  I  value  your  frankness  —  that  my 
kinsman  here  seems  to  fancy  a  flaw  of  character  — 
I  '11  be  explicit  on  the  cause  of  my  curious  be- 
haviour in  this  crisis.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  was 
brought  up  loyally  to  our  savage  Highland  tradi- 
tion, that  feuds  were  to  carry  on,  enemies  to  con- 
found, and  that  no  logic  under  heaven  should 
keep  the    claymore    in    its   sheath   while   an   old 


200  JOHN   SPLENDID 

grudge  was  to  wipe  out  in  blood  or  a  wrong  to 
right." 

"  A  most  sensible  and  laudable  doctrine  !  "  cried 
M'lver.  "  With  that  and  no  more  of  a  principle 
in  life  —  except  paying  your  way  among  friends  — 
a  good  man  of  his  hands  could  make  a  very  snug 
and  reputable  progress  through  the  world." 

"Some  men  might,"  said  Argile,  calmly;  "I  do 
not  know  whether  to  envy  or  pity  their  kind.  But 
they  are  not  my  kind.  I  think  I  bore  myself  not 
ungracefully  in  the  Cabinet,  in  the  field  too,  so 
long  as  I  took  my  father's  logic  without  question. 
But  I  have  read,  I  have  pondered " 

"Just  so,"  whispered  M'lvcr,  not  a  bit  abashed 
that  a  sneer  was  in  his  interjection  and  his  master 
could  behold  it. 

"  —  And  I  have  my  doubts  about  the  righteous- 
ness of  much  of  our  warfare,  either  before  my  day 
or  now.  I  have  brought  the  matter  to  my  closet. 
I  have  prayed " 

"  Pshaw !  "  exclaimed  M'lver,  but  at  once  he 
asked  pardon. 

"  —  I  am  a  man  come  —  or  well-nigh  come  — 
to  the  conclusion  that  his  life  was  never  designed 
by  the  Creator  to  be  spent  in  the  turmoil  of  fac- 
tion and  field.  There  is,  I  allow,  a  kind  of  man 
whom  strife  sets  off,  a  middling  good  man  in  his 
way,  perhaps,  with  a  call  to  the  sword  whose  jus- 
tice he  has  never  questioned.  I  have  studied  the 
philosophies ;  I  have  reflected  on  life  —  this  un- 
fathomable problem  —  and  'fore  God  I  begin  to 
doubt  my  very  right  to  wear  a  breastplate  against 


JOHN    SPLENDID  201 

the  poignard  of  fate :  Dubiety  plays  on  me  like  a 
flute." 

To  all  this  I  listened  soberly,  at  the  time  com- 
prehending that  this  was  a  gentleman  suffering 
from  the  disease  of  being  unable  to  make  up  his 
mind.  I  would  have  let  him  go  on  in  that  key 
while  he  pleasured  it,  for  it 's  a  vein  there 's  no 
remedy  for  at  the  time  being;  but  M'lver  was  not 
of  such  tolerant  stuff  as  I.  He  sat  with  an  amazed 
face  till  his  passion  simmered  over  into  a  torrent 
of  words. 

"  MacCailein  !  "  said  he,  "  I  '11  never  call  you 
coward,  but  I  '11  call  you  mad,  book  mad,  closet 
mad !  Was  this  strong  fabric  your  house  of 
Argile  (John  M'lver  the  humblest  of  its  mem- 
bers) built  up  on  doubt  and  whim  and  shilly- 
shally hither  and  yond?  Was  't  that  made  notable 
the  name  of  your  ancestor  Cailein  Mor  na  Sringe, 
now  in  the  clods  of  Kilchrcnan,  or  Cailein  longa- 
taich  that  cooled  his  iron  hide  in  Linne-na-luraich  ; 
or  your  father  himself  (peace  with  him  !),  who  did 
so  gallantly  at  Glenlivet?" 

"  And  taught  me  a  little  of  the  trade  of  slaughter 
at  the  Western  Isles  thirty  years  ago  come  Candle- 
mas," said  the  Marquis.  "  How  a  man  ages ! 
Then  —  then  I  had  a  heart  like  the  bird  of 
spring." 

"  He  could  have  taught  you  worse  !  I  'm  your 
cousin  and  cummer,  and  I  '11  say  it  to  your  beard, 
sir  !  Your  glens  and  howcs  are  ruined,  your  cat- 
tle are  houghed  and  berried,  your  clan's  name  is  a 
bye-word  this  wae  day  in  all  Albainn,  and  you  sit 


202  JOHN   SPLENDID 

there  like  a  chemist  weighing  the  wind  on  your 
stomach." 

"  You  see  no  farther  than  your  nose,  John,"  said 
the  Marquis,  petulantly,  the  candle-light  turning 
his  eyes  blood-red. 

"Thank  God  for  that  same!  "  said  M'lver,  "if 
it  gives  me  the  wit  to  keep  an  enemy  from  striking 
the  same.  If  the  nose  was  Argile's,  it  might  be 
twisted  off  his  face  while  he  debated  upon  his 
right  to  guard  it." 

"  You  're  in  some  ways  a  lucky  man,"  said  the 
Marquis,  still  in  the  most  sad  and  tolerant  humour. 
"  Did  you  never  have  a  second's  doubt  about  the 
right  of  your  side  in  battle?" 

"  Here  's  to  the  doubt,  sir,"  said  M'lver.  "  I  'm 
like  yourself  and  every  other  man  in  a  quandary 
of  that  kind,  that  thinking  on  it  rarely  brought  me 
a  better  answer  to  the  guess  than  I  got  from  my 
instinct  to  start  with." 

Argile  put  his  fingers  through  his  hair,  clearing 
the  temples,  and  shutting  wearied  eyes  on  a  per- 
plexing world. 

"  I  have  a  good  deal  of  sympathy  with  John's 
philosophy,"  I  said,  modestly.  "  I  hold  with  my 
father  that  the  sword  is  as  much  God's  scheme  as 
the  cassock.  What  are  we  in  this  expedition 
about  to  start  but  the  instruments  of  Heaven's 
vengeance  on  murthercrs  and  unbelievers?" 

"  I  could  scarcely  put  it  more  to  the  point  my- 
self," cried  M'lver.  "  A  soldier's  singular  and 
essential  duty  is  to  do  the  task  set  him  with  such 
art  and  accomplishment  as  he  can  in  approach, 
siege,  trench,  or  stronghold." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  203 

"  Ay,  ay  !  here  we  are  into  our  dialectics  again," 
said  his  lordship,  laughing,  with  no  particular  sur- 
render in  his  merriment.  "  You  gentlemen  make 
no  allowance  for  the  likelihood  that  James  Gra- 
hame,  too,  may  be  swearing  himself  Heaven's 
chosen  weapon.  *  Who  gave  Jacob  to  the  spoil 
and  Israel  to  the  robbers  —  did  not  I,  the  Lord  ?  ' 
Oh,  it's  a  confusing  world!" 

"Even  so,  MacCailein;  I 'm  a  plain  man,"  said 
M'lver,  "  though  of  a  good  family,  brought  up 
roughly  among  men,  with  more  regard  to  my 
strength  and  skill  of  arm  than  to  book-learning ; 
but  I  think  I  can  say  that  here  and  in  this  crisis 
I  am  a  man  more  fit,  express,  and  appropriate 
than  yourself.  In  the  common  passions  of  life, 
in  hate,  in  love,  it  is  the  simple  and  confident  act 
that  quicker  achieves  its  purpose  than  the  cun- 
ning ingenuity.  A  man  in  a  swither  is  a  man 
half  absent,  as  poor  a  fighter  as  he  is  indifferent 
a  lover;  the  enemy  and  the  girl  will  escape  him 
ere  he  has  throttled  the  doubt  at  his  heart. 
There 's  one  test  to  my  mind  for  all  the  enter- 
prises of  man  —  are  they  well  contrived  and  car- 
ried to  a  good  conclusion?  There  may  be  some 
unco  quirks  to  be  performed,  and  some  sore 
hearts  to  confer  at  the  doing  of  them,  but 
Heaven  itself,  for  all  its  puissance,  must  shorten 
the  pigeon's  wing  that  the  gled  of  the  wood  may 
have  food  to  live  on." 

"Upon  my  word,  MTver,"  said  Argile,  "you 
beat  me  at  my  own  trade  of  debate,  and  —  have 
you  ever  heard  of  a  fellow  Machiavelli?  " 


204  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  I  kent  a  man  of  that  name  in  a  corps  we  fore- 
gathered with  at  Mentz  —  a  '  provient  schriever,' 
as  they  called  him.  A  rogue,  with  a  hand  in  the 
sporran  of  ev^ery  soldier  he  helped  pay  wage  to." 

"  This  was  a  different  person ;  but  no  matter. 
Let  us  back  to  the  beginning  of  our  argument  — 
why  did  you  favour  my  leaving  for  Dunbarton 
when  Montrose  came  down  the  Glen?" 

The  blood  swept  to  M'lver's  face,  and  his  eye 
quailed. 

"  I  favoured  no  such  impolitic  act,"  said  he, 
slowly;  "I  saw  you  were  bent  on  going,  and  I 
but  backed  you  up,  to  leave  you  some  rags  oi 
illusion  to  cover  your  naked  sin." 

"  I  thought  no  less,"  said  Argile,  sadly,  "  and 
yet,  do  you  know,  Iain,  you  did  me  a  bad  turn 
yonder.  You  made  mention  of  ni}^  family's  safety, 
and  it  was  the  last  straw  that  broke  the  back  of 
my  resolution.  One  word  of  honest  duty  from 
you  at  that  time  had  kept  me  in  Inncraora  though 
Abijah's  array  and  Jeroboam's  horse  and  foot  were 
coming  down  the  glens." 

For  a  little  MTver  gave  no  answer,  but  sat  in  a 
chair  of  torture. 

"  I  am  sorry  for  it,"  he  said  at  last,  in  a  voice 
that  was  scarce  his  own ;  "  I  'm  in  an  agony  for 
it  now;  and  your  horse  was  not  round  Stron 
before  I  could  have  bit  out  the  tongue  that  flat- 
tered your  folly." 

MacCailein  smiled  with  a  solemn  pity  that  sat 
oddly  on  the  sinister  face  that  was  a  mask  to  a 
complex  and  pliable  soul. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  205 

*I  have  no  doubt,"  said  he,  "and  that's  why 
I  said  you  were  a  devil's  counsellor,  Man,  cousin  ! 
have  we  not  played  together  as  boys  on  the  shore, 
and  looked  at  each  other  on  many  a  night  across 
a  candid  bowl?  I  know  you  like  the  open  book; 
you  and  your  kind  are  the  weak,  strong  men  of 
our  Highland  race.  The  soft  tongue  and  the 
dour  heart ;  the  good  man  at  most  things  but  at 
your  word  !  " 


2o6  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XVI 

The  essence  of  all  human  melancholy  is  in  the 
sentiment  of  farewells.  There  are  people  roving 
about  the  world,  to-day  here,  to-morrow  afar,  who 
cheat  fate  and  avoid  the  most  poignant  wrench  of 
this  common  experience  by  letting  no  root  of 
their  affection  strike  into  a  home  or  a  heart.  Self- 
contained,  aloof,  unloved,  and  unloving,  they  make 
their  campaign  through  life  in  movable  tents  that 
they  strike  as  gaily  as  they  pitch,  and,  beholding 
them  thus  evading  the  one  touch  of  sorrow  that  is 
most  inevitable  and  bitter  to  every  sensitive  soul, 
I  have  sometimes  felt  an  envy  of  their  fortune. 
To  me  the  world  was  almost  mirthful  if  its  good- 
byes came  less  frequent.  Cold  and  heat,  the  con- 
tumely of  the  slanderer,  the  insult  of  the  tyrant, 
the  agues  and  fevers  of  the  flesh,  the  upheavals 
of  personal  fortune,  were  events  a  robust  man 
might  face  with  calm  valiancy  if  he  could  be 
spared  the  cheering  influence  of  the  homely  scene 
or  the  unchanged  presence  of  his  familiars  and 
friends.  I  have  sat  in  companies  and  put  on  an 
affected  mirth,  and  laughed  and  sung  with  the 
most  buoyant  of  all  around,  and  yet  ever  and  anon 
I  chilled  at  the  intruding  notion  of  life's  brevity. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  207 

Thus  my  leaving  town  Inneraora  —  its  frozen 
hearths,  its  smokeless  vents,  its  desecrated  door- 
ways, and  the  few  of  my  friends  who  were  back 
to  it — -was  a  stupendous  grief  My  father  and 
my  kinspeople  were  safe ;  we  had  heard  of  them 
by  the  returners  from  Lennox ;  but  a  girl  with 
dark  tresses  gave  me  a  closer  passion  for  my 
native  burgh  than  ever  I  felt  for  the  same  before. 
If  love  of  his  lady  had  been  Argile's  reason  for  re- 
treat (thought  I),  there  was  no  great  mystery  in 
his  act. 

What  enhanced  my  trouble  was  that  Clan  Mac- 
Lachlan,  as  Catholics,  always  safe  to  a  degree 
from  the  meddling  of  the  invaders,  had  re-estab- 
lished themselves  some  weeks  before  in  their  own 
territory  down  the  loch,  and  that  young  Lachlan, 
as  his  father's  proxy,  was  already  manifesting  a 
guardian's  interest  in  his  cousin.  The  fact  came 
to  my  knowledge  in  a  way  rather  odd,  but  char- 
acteristic of  John  Splendid's  anxiety  to  save  his 
friends  the  faintest  breeze  of  ill-tidings. 

We  were  up  early  betimes  in  the  morning  of 
our  departure  for  Lorn,  though  our  march  was 
fixed  for  the  afternoon,  as  we  had  to  await  the 
arrival  of  some  officers  from  Ceanntyre ;  and  John 
and  I,  preparing  our  accoutrements,  began  to  talk 
of  the  business  that  lay  heaviest  at  my  heart  — 
the  leaving  of  the  girl  we  had  found  in  Strongara 
wood. 

"  The  oddest  thing  that  ever  happened  to  me," 
he  said,  after  a  while,  "  is  that  in  the  matter  of  this 
child  she  mothers  so  finely  she  should  be  under 


2o8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

the  delusion  that  I  have  the  closest  of  all  interests 
in  its  paternity.  Did  you  catch  her  meaning  when 
she  spoke  of  its  antecedents  as  we  sat,  the  four  of 
us,  behind  the  fir- roots?  " 

"  No,  I  can't  say  that  I  did,"  said  I,  wonderingly. 

"  You  're  not  very  gleg  at  some  things,  Elrig- 
more,"  he  said,  smiling.  "Your  Latin  gave  you 
no  clue,  did  it,  to  the  fact  that  she  thought  John 
M'lver  a  vagabond  of  the  deepest  dye?  " 

"  If  she  thought  that,"  I  cried,  "  she  baffles  me; 
for  a  hint  I  let  drop  in  a  mere  careless  badinage  of 
your  gallanting   reputation   made    her    perilously 
near  angry." 

John  stroked  his  chin  with  pursed  lips,  musing 
on  my  words.  I  was  afraid  for  a  little  he  resented 
my  indiscretion ;  but  resentment  was  apparently 
not  in  his  mind,  for  his  speech  found  no  fault  with 
me. 

"  Man,  Colin,"  he  said,  "  you  could  scarcely 
have  played  a  more  cunning  card  if  you  had  had 
myself  to  advise  you.     But  no  matter  about  that." 

"  If  she  thinks  so  badly  of  you,  then,"  I  said, 
"  why  not  clear  yourself  from  her  suspicions,  that 
I  am  willing  to  swear  (less  because  of  your  gen- 
eral character  than  because  of  your  conduct  since 
she  and  you  and  the  child  met)  are  without 
foundation?  " 

"  I  could  scarcely  meet  her  womanly  innuendo 
with  a  coarse  and  abrupt  denial,"  said  he.  "  There 
are  some  shreds  of  common  decency  left  in  me 
yet." 

"And  you  prefer  to  let  her  think  the  worst?" 


JOHN   SPLENDID  209 

He  looked  at  me  with  a  heightened  colour,  and 
he  laughed  shortly. 

"  You  '11  be  no  loser  by  that,  perhaps,"  he  said ; 
and  before  I  could  answer  he  added,  "  Pardon  a 
foolish  speech,  Colin ;  I  learned  the  trick  of  fan- 
faron  among  foreign  gentry  who  claimed  a  coii- 
qiiete  (Vamoiir  for  every  woman  who  dropped  an 
eye  to  their  bold  scrutiny.  Do  not  give  me  any 
share  of  your  jealousy  for  Lachlan  MacLachlan  of 
that  ilk;  I  'm  not  deserving  the  honour.  And  that 
reminds  me " 

He  checked  himself  abruptly. 

"  Come,  come,"  said  I,  "  finish  your  story;  what 
about  MacLachlan  and  the  lady?  " 

"The  lady's  out  of  the  tale  this  time,"  he  said, 
shortly;  "  I  met  him  stravaiging  the  vacant  street 
last  night;   that  was  all." 

"  Then  I  can  guess  his  mission  without  another 
word  from  you,"  I  cried,  after  a  little  dumfounder- 
ment.     "  He  would  be  on  the  track  of  his  cousin." 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  John,  with  a  bland  front ; 
"  he  told  me  he  was  looking  for  a  boatman  to 
ferry  him  over  the  loch." 

This  story  was  so  plainly  fabricated  to  ease  my 
apprehension  that  down  I  went,  incontinent,  and 
sought  the  right  tale  in  the  burgh. 

Indeed  it  was  not  difficult  to  learn  the  true  par- 
ticulars, for  the  place  rang  all  the  worse  for  its 
comparative  emptiness  with  the  scandal  of  MTvcr's 
encounter  with  MacLachlan,  whom,  it  appeared,  he 
had  found  laying  a  gallant's  siege  to  the  ui)pcr  win- 
dow of  Askaig's   house,   whose   almost   unharmed 

14 


2IO  JOHN   SPLENDID 

condition  had  made  it  a  convenient  temporary- 
shelter  for  such  as  had  returned  to  the  town. 
In  the  chamber  behind  the  window  that  MacLach- 
lan  threw  his  pebbles  at,  were  his  cousin  and  the 
child,  as  M'lver  speedily  learned,  and  he  trounced 
him  from  the  neighbourhood  with  indignities. 

"  What  set  you  on  the  man?  "  I  asked  John  when 
I  came  back  after  learning  this. 

"  What  do  you  think?  "  said  he. 

"  You  could  have  done  no  more  if  you  had  an 
eye  on  the  girl  yourself,"  I  said,  "  and  that,  you 
assure  me,  is  out  of  the  question." 

"  The  reason  was  very  simple,"  he  answered. 
"  I  have  a  sort  of  elder  man's  mischievous  pleasure 
in  spoiling  a  young  buck's  ploy,  and  —  and  — there 
might  be  an  extra  interest  in  my  entertainment  in 
remembering  that  you  had  some  jealous  regard 
for  the  lady." 

All  I  had  that  was  precious  to  bring  with  me 
when  we  left  Inneraora  to  follow  the  track  of  Mon- 
trose was  the  friendl)'  wave  of  Mistress  Betty's 
hand  as  we  marched  out  below  the  Arches  on  our 
Way  to  the  North. 

Argile  and  Auchinbrcac  rode  at  our  head  —  his 
lordship  on  a  black  horse  called  Lepanto,  a  spirited 
beast  that  had  been  trained  to  active  exercises  and 
field-practice;  Auchinbrcac  on  a  smaller  animal, 
but  of  great  spirit  and  beauty.  M'lver  and  I 
walked,  as  did  all  the  officers.  We  had  for  c\'cry 
one  of  our  corps  twelve  shot  apiece,  and  in  the 
rear  a  sufficiency  of  centners  of  powder,  with  ball 
and  match.     But  we  depended  more  on  the  prick 


JOHN   SPLENDID  211 

of  pike  and  the  slash  of  sword  than  on  our  cul- 
verins.  Our  Lowland  levies  looked  fairly  well  dis- 
ciplined and  smart,  but  there  was  apparent  among 
them  no  great  gusto  about  our  expedition,  and  we 
had  more  hope  of  our  vengeance  at  the  hands  of 
our  uncouth,  but  eager  clansmen,  who  panted  to 
be  at  the  necks  of  their  spoilers  and  old  enemies. 

M'lver  confided  to  me  more  than  once  his  own 
doubts  about  the  mettle  of  the  companies  from 
Dunbarton. 

"  P  could  do  well  with  them  on  a  foreign 
strand,"  he  said,  "  fighting  for  the  bawbees  against 
half-hearted  soldiery  like  themselves ;  but  I  have 
my  doubts  about  their  valour  or  their  stomach  for 
this  broil  with  a  kind  of  enemy  who  's  like  to  sur- 
prise them  terribly  when  the  time  comes.  This 
aff"air's  decision  must  depend,  I  'm  afraid,  for  the 
most  part  on  our  own  lads,  and  I  wish  there  were 
more  of  them." 

We  w^ent  up  the  Glen  at  a  good  pace,  an  east 
wind  behind  us,  and  the  road  made  a  little  easier 
for  us  since  the  snow  had  been  trodden  by  the 
folks  we  were  after.  To-day  you  will  find  Aora 
Glen  smiling  —  happy  with  crop  and  herd  on 
either  hand  and  houses  at  every  turn  of  the  road, 
with  children  playing  below  the  mountain-ash  that 
stands  before  each  door.  You  cannot  go  a  step 
but  human  life  's  in  sight.  Our  march  was  in  a 
desolate  valley  —  the  winds  with  the  cold  odour 
(one  might  almost  think)  of  ruin  and  death. 

Beyond  Lecknamban,  where  the  time  b\'  the 
shadow  on    Tom-an-Uarader  was   three   hours   of 


212  JOHN   SPLENDID 

the  afternoon,  a  crazy  old  caillcach,  spared  by 
some  miracle  from  starvation  and  doom,  ran  out 
before  us  wringing  her  hands,  and  crying  a  sort  of 
coronach  for  a  family  of  sons  of  whom  not  one  had 
been  spared  to  her.  A  gaunt,  dark  woman,  with  a 
frenzied  eye,  her  cheeks  collapsed,  her  neck  and 
temples  like  crinkled  parchment,  her  clothes  drop- 
ping off  her  in  strips,  and  her  bare  feet  bleeding  in 
the  snow. 

Argile  scoffed  at  the  superstition,  as  he  called  it, 
and  the  Lowland  levies  looked  on  it  as  a  jocular 
game,  when  we  took  a  few  drops  of  her  blood 
from  her  forehead  for  luck,  a  piece  of  chirurgy 
that  was  perhaps  favourable  to  her  fever,  and  one 
that,  knowing  the  ancient  custom,  and  respecting 
it,  she  made  no  fraca  about. 

She  followed  us  in  the  snow  to  the  ruins  of 
Carnus,  pouring  out  her  curses  upon  Athole  and 
the  men  who  had  made  her  home  desolate  and  her 
widowhood  worse  than  the  grave,  and  calling  on 
us  a  thousand  blessings. 

Lochow — a  white,  vast  meadow,  still  bound  in 
frost  —  we  found  was  able  to  bear  our  army  and 
save  us  the  toilsome  bend  round  Stronmealochan. 
We  put  out  on  its  surface  fearlessly.  The  horses 
pranced  between  the  isles ;  our  cannon  trundled 
on  over  the  deeps;  our  feet  made  a  muffled  thun- 
der, and  that  was  the  only  sound  in  all  the  void. 
For  Cruachan  had  looked  down  on  the  devastation 
of  the  enemy.  And  at  the  falling  of  the  night  we 
camped  at  the  foot  of  Glen  Noe. 

It  was  a  night  of  exceeding  clearness,  with  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  213 

moon  almost  at  the  full,  sailing  between  us  and 
the  south.  A  certain  jollity  was  shed  by  it  upon 
our  tired  brigade,  though  all  but  the  leaders  (who 
slept  in  a  tent)  were  resting  in  the  snow  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  with  not  even  a  saugh-tree  to 
give  the  illusion  of  a  shelter.  There  was  but  one 
fire  in  the  bivouac,  for  there  was  no  fuel  at  hand, 
and  we  had  to  depend  upon  a  small  stock  of  peats 
that  came  with  us  in  the  stores-sledge. 

Deer  came  to  the  hill  and  belled  mournfully, 
while  we  ate  a  frugal  meal  of  oat-bannock  and 
wort.  The  Lowlanders  —  raw  lads  —  became 
boisterous ;  our  Gaels,  stern  with  remembrance 
and  eagerness  for  the  coming  business,  thawed  to 
their  geniality,  and  soon  the  laugh  and  song  went 
round  our  camp.  Argile  himself  for  a  time  joined 
in  our  diversion.  He  came  out  of  his  tent  and  lay 
in  his  plaid  among  his  more  immediate  followers, 
and  gave  his  quota  to  the  story  or  the  guess.  In 
the  deportment  of  his  lordship  now  there  was  none 
of  the  vexatious  hesitancy  that  helped  him  to  a 
part  so  poor  as  he  played  in  his  frowning  tower  at 
home  among  the  soothing  and  softening  effects  of 
his  family's  domestic  affairs.  He  was  true  Diar- 
maid  the  bold,  with  a  calm  eye  and  steadfast,  a 
worthy  general  for  us  his  children,  who  sat  round 
in  the  light  of  the  cheerful  fire.  So  sat  his  fore- 
bears and  ours  on  the  close  of  many  a  weary 
march,  on  the  eves  of  many  a  perilous  enterprise, 
That  cold  pride  that  cocked  his  head  so  high  on 
the  causeway  stones  of  Inneraora  relinquished  to 
a  mien  generous,  even  affectionate,  and  he  brought 


214  JOHN    SPLENDID 

out,  as  only  affection  may,  the  best  that  was  of 
accompHshment  and  grace  in  his  officers  around. 

"  Craignure,"  he  would  say,  "  I  remember  your 
story  of  the  young  King  of  Easaidh  Ruadh  ;  might 
we  have  it  anew?  " 

Or,  "Donald,  is  the  Glassary  song  of  the  Target 
in  your  mind?     It  haunts  me  like  a  charm." 

And  the  stories  came  free,  and  in  the  owercome 
of  the  songs  the  dark  of  Glen  Noe  joined  most 
lustily. 

Songs  will  be  failing  from  the  memory  in  the 
ranging  of  the  years,  the  passions  that  rose  to 
them  of  old  burned  low  in  the  ash,  so  that  many 
of  the  sweetest  ditties  I  heard  on  that  night  in 
Glen  Noe  have  long  syne  left  me  for  ever — all 
but  one  that  yet  I  hum  to  the  children  at  my  knee. 
It  was  one  of  John  Splendid's ;  the  words  and  air 
were  his  as  well  as  the  performance  of  them,  and 
though  the  English  is  a  poor  language  wherein 
to  render  any  fine  Gaelic  sentiment,  I  cannot  for- 
bear to  give  something  of  its  semblance  here.  He 
called  it  in  the  Gaelic  "  The  Sergeant  of  Pikes," 
and  a  few  of  its  verses  as  I  mind  them  might  be 
Scotticed  so  — 

When  I  sat  in  the  service  o'  foreign  commanders, 

Selling  a  sword  for  a  beggar  man's  fee, 
Learning  the  trade  o'  the  warrior  who  wanders, 

To  mak'  ilka  stranger  a  sworn  enemie ; 
There  was  ae  thought  that  nerved  me,  and  l)rawl\  it  served 
me, 

With  pith  to  the  claymore  whcrevcn  I  won, 
'T  was  the  auld  sodger's  story,  that,  gallows  or  glory, 

The  Hielan's,  the  Hielan's  were  crying  me  on  ! 


JOHN   SPLENDID  215 

I  tossed  upon  swinging  seas,  splashed  to  my  kilted  knees, 

Ocean  or  ditch,  it  was  ever  the  same ; 
In  leaguer  or  sally,  tattoo  or  revally, 

The  message  on  every  pibroch  that  came, 
Was  "  Cruachan,  Cruachan,  O  son  remember  us, 

Think  o'  your  fathers  and  never  be  slack  !  " 
Blade  and  buckler  together,  tliough  far  off  the  heather, 

The  Hielan's,  the  Hielan's  were  all  at  my  back! 


The  ram  to  the  gateway,  the  torch  to  the  tower, 

We  rifled  the  kist  and  the  cattle  we  maimed, 
Our  dirks   stabbed    at    guess    through   the   leaves  o'   the 
bower. 

And  crimes  we  committed  that  needna  be  named : 
Moonlight  or  dawning  grey,  Lammas  or  Ladyday, 

Donald  maun  dabble  his  plaid  in  the  gore. 
He  maun  hough  and  maun  harry,  or  should  he  miscarry, 

The  Hielan's,  the  Hielan's  will  own  him  no  more! 

And  still,  O  strange  Providence  !  mirk  is  your  mystery, 

Whatever  the  country  that  chartered  our  steel. 
Because  o'  the  valiant  repute  o'  our  history, 

The  love  o'  our  ain  land  we  maistly  did  feel; 
Many  a  misty  glen,  many  a  shelling  pen. 

Rose  to  our  vision  when  slogans  rang  high  ; 
And  this  was  the  solace  bright  came  to  our  starkest  fight, 

A'  for  the  Hielan's,  the  Hielan's  we  die  ! 


A  Sergeant  o'  Pikes,  I  have  pushed  and  have  parried  O 

(My  heart  still  at  tether  in  bonny  Glenshee), 
Weary  the  marches  made,  sad  the  towns  harried  O, 

But  in  fancy  the  heather  was  aye  at  my  knee  ; 
The  hill-berry  mellowing,  stag  o'  ten  bellowing. 

The  song  o'  the  fold  and  the  tale  by  the  hearth. 
Bairns  at  the  crying  and  auld  folks  a-dying. 

The  Hielan's  sent  wi'  me  to  fight  round  the  earth  ! 


2i6  JOHN    SPLENDID 

O  the  Hielan's,  the  Hielan's,  praise  God  for  His  favour, 

That  ane  sae  unworthy  should  heir  sic  estate, 
That  gi'ed  me  the  zest  o'  the  sword,  and  the  savour 

That  lies  in  the  loving  as  well  as  the  hate. 
Auld  age  may  subdue  me,  a  grim  death  be  due  me, 

For  even  a  Sergeant  o'  Pikes  maun  depart, 
But  I  '11  never  complain  o't,  whatever  the  pain  o't, 

The  Hielan's,  the  Hielan's  were  aye  at  my  heart ! 

We  closed  in  our  night's  diversion  with  the  ex- 
ercise of  prayer,  wherein  two  clerics  led  our  devo- 
tion, one  Master  Mungo  Law,  a  Lowlander,  and 
the  other  his  lordship's  chaplain — Master  Alex- 
ander Gordon,  who  had  come  on  this  expedition 
with  some  fire  of  war  in  his  face,  and  never  so 
much  as  a  stiletto  at  his  waist. 

They  prayed  a  trifle  long  and  drearily  the  pair 
of  them,  and  both  in  the  English  that  most  of  our 
clansmen  but  indifferently  understood.  They 
pra}'cd  as  prayed  David,  that  the  counsel  of  Ahith- 
ophcl  might  be  turned  to  foolishness ;  and  "  Lo," 
they  said,  "be  strong  and  courageous;  fear  not, 
neither  be  afraid  of  the  King  of  7\shur,  neither  for 
all  the  multitude  that  is  with  him  ;  for  there  be 
more  with  us  than  with  him,"  and  John  Splendid 
turned  to  me  at  this  with  a  dry  laugh. 

"  Colin,  my  dear,"  said  he,  "  thus  the  hawk  upon 
the  mountain-side,  and  the  death  of  the  winged 
eagle  to  work  up  a  valour  for !  '  llicre  be  more 
with  us  than  with  him.'  I  ne\cr  lieard  it  so  bluntly 
put  before.  But  perhaps  Heaven  will  forgive  us 
the  sin  of  our  caution,  seeing  tliat  lialf  our  superior 
number  are  but  Lowland  levies." 

And  all  night  long  deer  belled  to  deer  on  the 
braes  of  Glen  Noe. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  217 


CHAPTER   XVII 

We  might  well  be  at  our  prayers.  Appin  paid 
dearly  for  its  merriment  in  the  land  of  Cailein 
Mor,  and  the  MacDonalds  were  mulct  most  gener- 
ously for  our  every  hoof  and  horn.  For  when  we 
crossed  Loch  Etive  foot  there  came  behind  us 
from  the  ruined  glens  of  Lower  Lorn  hordes  of 
shepherds,  hunters,  small  men  of  small  families, 
who  left  their  famished  dens  and  holes,  hunger 
sharping  them  at  the  nose,  the  dead  bracken  of 
concealment  in  their  hair,  to  join  in  the  vengeance 
on  the  cause  of  their  distress.  Without  chieftains 
or  authority,  they  came  in  savage  bands,  affronting 
the  sea  with  their  shouts  as  they  swam  or  ferried ; 
they  made  up  to  the  wildest  of  our  troops,  and  ho, 
ro !  for  the  plaids  far  and  wide  on  the  errands  of 
Hell.  In  that  clear,  cold,  white  weather  —  the 
weather  of  the  badger's  dream,  as  our  proverb 
calls  it  —  we  brought  these  glens  unfriendly,  death 
in  the  black  draught  and  the  red  wine  of  fire.  A 
madness  of  hate  seized  on  us ;  we  glutted  our  ap- 
petites to  the  very  gorge.  I  must  give  Argile  the 
credit  of  giving  no  licence  to  our  ongoings.  He 
rode  after  us  with  his  Lowlanders,  protesting, 
threatening,  cajoling  in  vain.  Many  a  remon- 
strance, too,  made  Gordon,  many  an  opening  fire 
he  stamped  out  in  cot  and  barn.     But  the  black 


2i8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

smoke  of  the  j^ranary  belching  against  the  white 
hills,  or  the  kyloe,  houghed  and  maimed,  roaring 
in  its  agony,  or  the  fugitive  brought  bloody  on  his 
knees  among  the  rocks  —  God's  mercy  ! 

Do  you  know  why  those  unco  spectacles  were 
sometimes  almost  sweet  to  me,  though  I  was  more 
often  a  looker-on  than  a  sharer  in  their  horror? 
It  was  because  I  never  saw  a  barn  blaze  in  Appin  or 
Glencoe,  but  I  minded  on  our  own  black  barns  in 
Shira  Glen ;  nor  a  beast  slashed  at  the  sinew  with 
a  wanton  knife,  but  I  thought  of  Moira,  the  dap- 
pled one  that  was  the  pride  of  my  mother's  byre, 
made  into  hasty  collops  for  a  Stewart  meal. 
Through  this  remoter  Lorn  I  went,  less  conscious 
of  cruelty  than  when  I  plied  fire  and  sword  with 
legitimate  men  of  war,  for  ever  in  my  mind  was  the 
picture  of  real  Argile,  scorched  to  the  vitals  with 
the  invading  flame,  and  a  burgh  town  I  cherished 
reft  of  its  people,  and  a  girl  with  a  child  at  her  neck 
flying  and  sobbing  among  the  hills. 

Montrose  and  MacColkitto  were  far  before  us, 
marching  up  the  Great  Glen.  They  had  with  them 
the  pick  of  the  clans,  so  we  lived,  as  it  were,  at 
free  quarters,  and  made  up  for  weeks  of  short  fare 
by  a  time  of  high -feeding. 

Over  Etive  and  through  the  15cndcrloch,  and 
through  Appin  and  even  up  to  Glencoe,  by  some 
strange  spasm  of  physique  —  for  she  was  frail  and 
famished  —  the  barefooted  old  caillcacJi  of  Carnus 
came  after  us,  a  bird  of  battle,  croaking  in  a  hor- 
rible merriment  over  our  operations.  The  Dark 
Dame  we  called  her.     She  would  dance  round  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  219 

butchery  of  the  fold,  chanting  her  venomous  GaeHc 
exultation  in  uncouth  rhymes  that  she  strung 
together  as  easily  as  most  old  people  of  her  kind 
can  do  such  things  in  times  of  passion  or  trance. 
She  must  have  lived  like  a  vulture,  for  no  share 
would  she  have  in  our  pots,  though  sometimes  she 
added  a  goiit  to  them  by  fetching  dainties  from 
houses  by  the  way,  whose  larders  in  our  masculine 
ignorance  we  had  overlooked. 

**  I  would  give  thee  the  choicest  of  the  world," 
she  would  say.  "  What  is  too  good  for  my  heroes, 
O  heroes  of  the  myrtle-badge?" 

"  Sit  down  and  pick,"  John  Splendid  bade  her 
once,  putting  a  roystercr's  playful  arm  round  her 
waist,  and  drawing  her  to  the  fire  where  a  dinner 
stewed. 

Up  she  threw  her  claws,  and  her  teeth  were  at 
his  neck  with  a  weasel's  instinct.  But  she  drew 
back  at  a  gleam  of  reason. 

"  Oh,  darling,  darling,"  she  cried,  patting  him 
with  her  foul  hands,  "  did  I  not  fancy  for  the 
moment  thou  wert  of  the  spoilers  of  my  home  and 
honour  —  thou,  the  fleet  foot,  the  avenger,  the  gen- 
tleman with  an  account  to  pay  —  on  thee  this 
mother's  blessing,  for  thee  this  widow's  prayers  !  " 

M'lver  was  more  put  about  at  her  friendliness 
than  at  her  ferocity,  as  he  shook  his  plaiding  to 
order  and  fell  back  from  her  worship. 

"  I  've  seldom  seen  a  more  wicked  cat,"  said  he ; 
"  go  home,  grandam,  and  leave  us  to  our  business. 
If  they  find  you  in  Lochaber  they  will  gralloch 
you  like  a  Yule  hind." 


220  JOHN   SPLENDID 

She  leered,  witch-like,  at  him,  clutched  suddenly 
at  his  sword-hilt,  and  kissed  it  with  a  frenzy  of 
words,  then  sped  off,  singing  madly  as  she  flew. 

We  left  the  Dark  Dame  on  Levenside  as  we 
ferried  over  to  Lochaber,  and  the  last  we  saw  of 
her,  she  stood  knee-deep  in  the  water,  calling,  call- 
ing, calling,  through  the  gray,  dun  morning,  a  curse 
on  Clan  Donald  and  a  blessing  on  Argile. 

His  lordship  sat  at  the  helm  of  a  barge,  his  face 
pallid  and  drawn  with  cold,  and  he  sighed  heavily 
as  the  beldame's  cries  came  after  us. 

"  There  's  little  of  God's  grace  in  such  an  omen," 
said  he,  in  English,  looking  at  the  dim  figure  on 
the  shore,  and  addressing  Gordon. 

"  It  could  happen  nowhere  else,"  said  the  cleric, 
"but  in  such  a  ferocious  land.  I  confess  it,  my 
lord  —  I  confess  it  with  the  bitter  shame  of  sur- 
render, that  I  behold  generations  of  super- 
stition and  savagery  still  to  beat  down  ere  your 
people  are  so  amenable  to  the  Gospel  as  the  folks 
of  the  Lowland  shires.  To  them  such  a  shrieking 
harridan  would  be  an  object  of  pity  and  stern 
measure;  they  would  call  her  mad  as  an  etter-cap, 
and  keep  her  in  bounds  —  here  she  is  made  some- 
thing of  a  prophetess " 

"How?"  asked  Argile,  shortly,  and  he  was 
looking  wistfully  at  the  hills  we  were  leaving  —  the 
hills  that  lay  between  him  and  his  books. 

"There's  not  a  Highlander  in  your  corps  but 
has  bowed  his  head  to  her  blessing;  there 's  not 
one  but  looks  upon  her  curse  of  the  MacDonalds 
as  so  much  of  a  gain  in  this  enterprise." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  221 

"  Oh,"  said  his  lordship,  "  you  are  a  little 
extravagant.  We  have  our  foolish  ways,  Gordon, 
but  we  are  not  altogether  heathen ;  and  do  you 
think  that  after  all  there  might  not  be  something  in 
the  portents  of  a  witch  like  yon  in  her  exaltation?  " 

"  No  more  than 's  in  the  howling  of  the  wind  in 
the  chimney,"  said  Gordon,  quickly. 

"  Perhaps  not,"  said  Argile,  after  a  little,  "per- 
haps not;  but  even  the  piping  of  the  vent  has 
something  of  prophecy  in  it,  though  the  wind 
bloweth  where  it  listeth.  I  have  only  a  scholar's 
interest  in  these  things,  I  give  you  my  word, 
and " 

He  laughed  with  a  little  restraint  before  he  went 
on. 

"  Do  you  know,  John,"  he  called  out  to  M'lver 
• — "do  you  know  what  our  cailleacJi  friend  says  of 
our  jaunt?  She  put  a  head  in  at  my  tent  last  night, 
and  '  Listen,  MacCailein,'  said  she,  '  and  keep  on 
high  roads,'  said  she,  '  and  Inverlochy  's  a  perilous 
place,'  said  she,  '  and  I  'd  be  wae  to  see  the  heather 
above  the  gall.'  " 

John  Splendid's  back  was  to  him  as  he  sat  at 
the  prow  of  a  boat  coming  close  on  our  stern,  but 
I  saw  the  skin  of  his  neck  flame.  He  never 
turned ;  he  made  no  answer  for  a  moment,  and 
when  he  spoke,  it  was  with  a  laughing  allusion  in 
English  to  the  folly  of  portents. 

This  was  so  odd  an  attitude  for  a  man  usually 
superstitious  to  take  up,  that  I  engaged  him  on 
the  point  whenever  we  landed. 

"  You  seem  to  have  no  great  respect  tor  the 
Dark  Dame's  wizardy,"  said  L 


222  JOHN   SPLENDID 

He  took  me  aside  from  some  of  the  clansmen 
who  could  overhear. 

"  Never  let  these  lads  think  that  you  either  treat 
lightly  Dame  Dubh  or  make  overmuch  of  her  talk 
about  the  heather  and  gall,  for  they  prize  her 
blessing,  strangely  enough,  and  they  might  lay  too 
great  stress  on  its  failure.     You  catch  me?  " 

I  nodded  to  keep  him  going,  and  turned  the 
thing  over  in  my  mind. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  the  prophecy  yourself?  " 
he  asked  ;   "  is  it  not  familiar?  " 

In  a  flash  it  came  to  my  mind  that  I  had  half 
hinted  to  him  at  what  the  Macaulay  woman  had 
said  in  the  fold  of  Elrigmore. 

"  I  think,"  said  I,  "  the  less  the  brooding  on 
these  things  the  better." 

If  we  had  our  own  misgivings  about  the  end 
of  this  jaunt,  our  companions  had  none.  They 
plunged  with  hearts  almost  jocular  into  the  woods 
on  Lochaber's  edge,  in  a  bright  sunshine  that 
glinted  on  the  boss  of  the  target  and  on  the  hilt  of 
the  knife  or  sword ;  and  we  came  by  the  middle 
of  the  day  to  the  plain  on  which  lay  the  Castle  of 
Inverlochy  —  a  staunch  quadrangular  edifice  with 
round  towers  at  the  angles,  and  surrounded  by  a 
moat  that  smelled  anything  but  freshly.  And  there 
we  lay  for  a  base,  and  thence  we  sent  out  round 
Keppoch  and  Locheil  some  dashing  companies 
that  carried  on  the  work  we  began  in  Athole. 

Auchinbreac's  notion,  for  he  was  more  than  my 
lord  the  guide  of  this  enterprise,  was  to  rest  a  day 
or  two  in  the  castle  and  then  follow  on  the  heels 


JOHN   SPLENDID  223 

of  Montrose,  who,  going  np  Loch  Ncss-sidc,  as  we 
knew  he  was,  would  find  himself  checked  in  front 
by  Seaforth,  and  so  hemmed  between  two  fires. 

It  was  about  three  o'clock  on  Wednesday  after- 
noon when  Argile  sent  for  M'lver  and  myself  to 
suggest  a  reconnoitring  excursion  up  the  Great 
Glen  by  the  side  of  the  lochs,  to  see  how  far  the 
enemy  might  have  reached  before  us. 

"  I  'm  sorry  to  lose  your  company,  gentlemen," 
said  he,  "even  for  a  day;  but  this  is  a  delicate 
embassy,  and  I  can  fancy  no  one  better  able  to 
carry  it  through  successfully  than  the  two  gen- 
tlemen who  have  done  more  delicate  and  danger- 
ous work  in  the  ranks  of  the  honourable  Scots 
Brigade." 

"  I  can  say  for  myself,"  said  John,  "  that  there  's 
not  a  man  in  Keppoch  could  guess  my  nativity  or 
my  politics  if  I  had  on  another  tartan  than  that  of 
the  Diarmaid." 

"  Ah !  you  have  the  tongue,  no  doubt  of  it," 
said  Argile,  smiling;  "and  if  a  change  of  colour 
would  make  your  task  less  hazardous,  why  not 
affect  it?  I'm  sure  we  could  accommodate  you 
with  some  neutral  fabric  for  kilt  and  plaid." 

"  For  the  humour  of  the  thing,"  said  John,  "  I 
would  like  to  try  it;  but  I  have  no  notion  of  get- 
ting hanged  for  a  spy.  James  Grahame  of  Mon- 
trose has  enough  knowledge  of  the  polite  arts  of 
war  to  know  the  difference  between  a  spy  in  his 
camp  in  a  false  uniform  and  a  scout  taking  all  the 
risks  of  the  road  by  wearing  his  own  colours.  In 
the  one  case    he  would  hang  us  offhand,  in  the 


224  JOHN   SPLENDID 

other  there's  a  hair's-brcadth  of  chance  that   he 
might  keep  us  as  hostages." 

"  But  in  any  tartan,  cousin,  you  're  not  going  to 
let  yourself  be  caught,"  said  Argile.  "  We  have 
too  much  need  for  you  here.  Indeed,  if  I  thought 
you  were  not  certain  to  get  through  all  right,  I 
would  send  cheaper  men  in  your  place." 

John  laughed. 

"  There  's  no  more  cure,"  said  he,  "  for  death  in 
a  common  herd  than  for  the  same  murrain  in  an 
ensign  of  foot." 

"A  scholar's  sentiment !"  cried  Argile.  "Are 
you  taking  to  the  philosophies?" 

"It's  the  sentiment,  or  something  like  it,  of 
your  chaplain,  Master  Gordon,"  said  John;  "he 
reproved  me  with  it  on  Dunchuach.  But  to  do 
myself  justice,  I  was  never  one  who  would  run 
another  into  any  danger  I  was  unwilling  to  face 
myself" 

The  Marquis  said  no  more,  so  we  set  about 
preparing  for  the  journey. 

"  Well,  Ebrigmore,  here  we  are  running  the 
loupegarthe  with  MacDonalds  on  the  one  side  of 
us  and  Camerons  on  the  other,"  said  my  comrade, 
as  we  set  out  at  the  mouth  of  the  evening,  after 
parting  from  a  number  of  the  clan  who  went  up  to 
the  right  at  Spean  to  do  some  harrying  in  Glen 
Roy. 

No  gavilliger  or  provost-marshal  ever  gave  a 
more  hazardous  gauntlet  to  run,  thought  I,  and  I 
said  as  much;  but  my  musings  brought  only  a 
good-humoured  banter  from  my  friend. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  225 

All  night  we  walked  on  a  deserted  rocky  road- 
way under  moon  and  star.  By  the  side  of  Loch 
Lochy  there  was  not  a  light  to  be  seen ;  even  the 
solitary  dwellings  we  crept  bye  in  the  early  part  of 
our  journey  were  without  smoke  at  the  chimney  or 
glimmer  at  the  chink.  And  on  that  loch-side, 
toward  the  head  of  it,  there  were  many  groups  of 
mean  little  hovels,  black  with  smoke  and  rain,  with 
ragged  sloven  thatch,  the  midden  at  the  very  door 
and  the  cattle  routing  within,  but  no  light,  no  sign 
of  human  occupation. 

It  was  the  dawning  of  the  day,  a  fine  day  as  it 
proved  and  propitious  to  its  close,  that  we  ven- 
tured to  enter  one  such  hut  or  bothy  at  the  foot  of 
another  loch  that  lay  before  us.  Auchinbreac's 
last  order  to  us  had  been  to  turn  wherever  we  had 
indication  of  the  enemy's  whereabouts,  and  to  turn 
in  any  case  by  morning.  Before  we  could  go 
back,  however,  we  must  have  some  sleep  and 
food,  so  we  went  into  this  hut  to  rest  us.  It  stood 
alone  in  a  hollow  by  a  burn  at  the  foot  of  a  very 
high  hill,  and  was  tenanted  by  a  buxom,  well- 
featured  woman  with  a  herd  of  duddy  children. 
There  was  no  man  about  the  place ;  we  had  the 
delicacy  not  to  ask  the  reason,  and  she  had  the 
caution  not  to  offer  any.  As  we  rapped  at  her 
door  we  put  our  arms  well  out  of  sight  below  our 
neutral  plaids ;  but  I  daresay  our  trade  was  plain 
enough  to  the  woman  when  she  came  out  and 
gave  us  the  Gael's  welcome  somewhat  grudgingly, 
with  an  eye  on  our  apparel  to  look  for  the  tartan. 

"  Housewife,"  said  John  M'lver,  blandly,  "  we  're 


226  JOHN   SPLENDID 

a  bit  off  our  way  here  by  no  fault  of  our  own,  and 
we  have  been  on  the  hillside  all  night,  and " 

"  Come  in,"  she  said  shortly,  still  scrutinising  us 
very  closely,  till  I  felt  myself  flushing  wildly,  and 
she  gave  us  the  only  two  stools  in  her  dwelling, 
and  broke  the  peats  that  smouldered  on  the  middle 
of  her  floor.  The  chamber  —  a  mean  and  con- 
tracted interior — was  lit  mainly  from  the  door 
and  the  smoke-vent,  that  gave  a  narrow  glimpse 
of  heaven  through  the  black  cnbar  and  thatch. 
Round  about  the  woman  gathered  her  children, 
clinging  at  her  gown,  and  their  eyes  stared  large 
and  round  in  the  gloom  at  the  two  of  us  who  came 
so  appallingly  into  their  nest. 

We  sat  for  a  little  with  our  plaids  about  us, 
revelling  in  the  solace  of  the  hearty  fire  that  sent 
wafts  of  odorous  reek  round  the  dwelling,  and  to 
our  dry  rations  the  woman  added  whey,  that  we 
drank  from  birch  cogies. 

"  I  am  sorry  I  have  no  milk  just  now,"  she  said. 
"  I  had  a  cow  till  the  day  before  yesterday ;  now 
she  's  a  cow  no  more,  but  pith  in  Colkitto's  heroes." 

"  They  lifted  her?  "  asked  John. 

"  I  would  not  say  they  lifted  her,"  said  the 
woman,  readily ;  "  for  who  would  be  more  welcome 
to  my  all  than  the  gentleman  of  Keppoch  and 
Scumais  Grahamc  of  Montrose  ?  "  And  again  she 
looked  narrowly  at  our  close-drawn  plaids. 

I  stood  up,  pulled  out  my  plaid-pin,  and  let  the 
folds  off  my  shoulder,  and  stood  revealed  to  her 
in  a  Diarmaid  tartan. 

"You  see  we  make  no  pretence  at  being  other 


JOHN   SPLENDID  227 

than  what  we  are,"  I  said,  softly  ;  "  are  we  welcome 
to  your  whey  and  to  your  fire-end?  " 

She  showed  no  sign  of  astonishment  or  alarm, 
and  she  answered  with  great  deliberation,  choosing 
her  Gaelic,  and  uttering  it  with  an  air  to  impress 
us. 

"  I  dare  grudge  no  one  at  my  door,"  said  she, 
"  the  warmth  of  a  peat  and  what  refreshment  my 
poor  dwelling  can  give ;  but  I  've  seen  more  wel- 
come guests  than  the  spoilers  of  Appin  and  Glen- 
coe.  I  knew  you  for  Campbells  when  you 
knocked." 

"Well,  mistress,"  said  M'lver,  briskly,  "you 
might  know  us  for  Campbells,  and  might  think  the 
worse  of  us  for  that  same  fact  (which  we  cannot 
help),  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  you  will  know  us  for 
gentlemen,  too.  If  you  rue  the  letting  of  us  in, 
we  can  just  go  out  again.  Rut  we  are  weary  and 
cold  and  sleepy,  for  we  have  been  on  foot  since 
yesterday,  and  an  hour  among  bracken  or  white 
hay  would  be  welcome." 

"  And  when  you  were  sleeping,"  said  the  woman, 
"  what  if  I  went  out  and  fetched  in  some  men  of 
a  cTan  who  would  be  glad  to  mar  your  slumber?  " 

John  studied  her  face  for  a  moment.  It  was  a 
sonsy  and  good-humoured  face,  and  her  eyes  were 
not  unkindly. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  you  might  have  some  ex- 
cuse for  a  deed  so  unhospitablc,  and  a  deed  so 
different  from  the  spirit  of  the  Highlands  as  I 
know  them.  Your  clan  would  be  little  the  better 
tor  the    deaths  of   two  gentlemen  whose  fighting 


228  JOHN    SPLENDID 

has  been  in  other  lands  than  this,  and  a  wife  with 
a  child  at  her  breast  would  miss  me,  and  a  girl  with 
her  wedding-gown  at  the  making  would  miss  my 
friend  here.  These  are  wild  times,  goodwife,  wild 
and  cruel  times,  and  a  widow  more  or  less  is 
scarcely  worth  troubling  over.  I  think  we  '11  just 
risk  you  calling  in  your  men,  for,  God  knows,  I  'm 
wearied  enough  to  sleep  on  the  verge  of  the  Pit 
itself." 

The  woman  manifestly  surrendered  her  last 
scruple  at  his  deliverance.  She  prepared  to  lay 
out  a  rough  bedding  of  the  bleached  bog-grass 
our  people  gather  in  the  dry  days  of  spring. 

"  You  may  rest  you  a  while,  then,"  said  she. 
"  I  have  a  husband  with  Keppoch,  and  he  might 
be  needing  a  bed  among  strangers  himself" 

"  We  are  much  in  your  reverence,  housewife," 
said  John,  nudging  me  so  that  I  felt  ashamed  of 
his  double-dealing.  "That's  a  bonny  bairn,"  he 
continued,  lifting  one  of  the  children  in  his  arms; 
"the  rogue  has  your  own  good  looks  in  every 
lineament." 

"  Aye,  aye,"  said  the  woman  drily,  spreading 
her  blankets,  "  I  would  need  no  sight  of  tartan  to 
guess  j'^//r  clan,  master;  your  flattery  goes  wrong 
this  time,  for  by  ill-luck  you  have  the  only  bairn 
that  does  not  belong  to  me  of  all   the  brood." 

"  Now  that  I  look  closer,"  he  laughed,  "  I  see  a 
difference ;  but  I  '11  take  back  no  jot  of  my  com- 
pliment to  yourself" 

"  I  was  caught  yonder,"  said  he  to  me  a  little 
later  in  a  whisper  in  English,  as  we  lay  down  in 


JOHN   SPLENDID  229 

our  corner.  "A  man  of  my  ordinary  acuteness 
should  have  seen  that  the  brat  was  the  only  un- 
spoiled member  of  all  the  flock." 

We  slept,  it  might  be  a  couple  of  hours,  and 
wakened  together  at  the  sound  of  a  man's  voice 
speaking  with  the  woman  outside  the  door.  Up 
we  sat,  and  John  damned  the  woman  for  her 
treachery. 

"Wait  a  bit,"  I  said.  "  I  would  charge  her  with 
no  treachery  till  I  had  good  proofs  for  it.  I  'm 
mistaken  if  your  lie  about  your  wife  and  weans 
has  not  left  her  a  more  honest  spirit  toward  us." 
.  The  man  outside  was  talking  in  a  shrill,  high 
voice,  and  the  woman  in  a  softer  voice  was  mak- 
ing excuses  for  not  asking  him  to  go  in.  One  of 
her  little  ones  was  ill  of  a  fever,  she  said,  and 
sleeping,  and  her  house,  too,  was  in  confusion, 
and  could  she  hand  him  out  something  to  eat? 

"  A  poor  place  Badenoch  nowadays,"  said  the 
man,  petulantly.  "  I  've  seen  the  day  a  bard 
would  be  free  of  the  best  and  an  honour  to  have 
by  any  one's  fire.  But  out  with  the  bannocks  and 
I  '11  be  going.  I  must  be  at  Kilcumin  with  as 
much  speed  as  my  legs  will  lend  me." 

He  got  his  bannocks  and  he  went,  and  we  lay 
back  a  while  on  our  bedding  and  pretended  to  have 
heard  none  of  the  incident.  It  was  a  pleasant 
feature  of  the  good  woman's  character  that  she 
said  never  a  word  of  her  tactics  in  our  interest. 

"  So  you  did  not  bring  in  your  gentlemen?  " 
said  John,  as  we  were  preparing  to  go.  "  I  was 
half  afraid  some  one  might  find  his  way  unbidden, 


230  JOHN    SPLENDID 

and  then  it  was  all  bye  with  two  poor  soldiers  of 
fortune." 

"John  MacDonald  the  bard,  John  Lorn,  as  we 
call  him,  went  bye  a  while  ago,"  she  answered 
simply,  "  on  his  way  to  the  clan  at  Kilcumin." 

"  I  have  never  seen  the  bard  yet  that  did  not 
demand  his  bardic  right  to  kailpot  and  spoon  at 
every  passing  door." 

"This  one  was  in  a  hurry,"  said  the  woman, 
reddening  a  little  in  confusion. 

"  Just  so,"  said  M'lver,  fumbling  in  his  hand 
some  coin  he  had  taken  from  his  sporran,  "  have 
you  heard  of  the  gold  touch  for  fever?  A  child 
has  been  brought  from  the  edge  of  the  grave  by 
the  virtue  of  a  dollar  rubbed  on  its  brow.  I  think 
I  heard  you  say  some  neighbour's  child  was  ill? 
I  'm  no  physician,  but  if  my  coin  could  —  what?  " 

The  woman  flushed  deeper  than  ever,  an  angered 
pride  this  time  in  her  heat. 

"  There's  no  child  ill  that  I  know  of,"  said  she; 
"  if  there  was,  we  have  gold  of  our  own." 

She  bustled  about  the  house  and  put  past  her 
blankets,  and  out  with  a  spinning-wheel  and  into 
a  whirr  of  it,  with  a  hummed  song  of  the  country 
at  her  lips  —  all  in  a  mild  temper,  or  to  keep  her 
confusion  from  showing  itself  undignified. 

"  Come  away,"  I  said  to  my  comrade  in  English, 
"  you  '11  make  her  bitterly  angry  if  you  persist  in 
your  purpose." 

He  paid  no  heed  to  mc,  but  addressed  the 
woman  again  with  a  most  ingenious  story,  con- 
trived with  his  usual  wit  as  he  went  on  with  it 


JOHN   SPLENDID  231 

"Your  pardon,  goodwifc,"  said  he,  "but  I  see 
you  are  too  sharp  for  my  small  deceit.  I  daresay 
I  might  have  guessed  there  was  no  child  ill ;  but 
for  reasons  of  my  own  I  'm  anxious  to  leave  a  little 
money  with  you  till  I  come  back  this  road  again. 
We  trusted  you  with  our  lives  for  a  couple  of 
hours  there,  and  surely,  thinks  I,  we  can  trust  you 
with  a  couple  of  yellow  pieces." 

The  woman  stopped  her  wheel  and  resumed  her 
good  humour.  "  I  thought,"  said  she,  "  I  thought 
you  meant  payment  for " 

"  You  're  a  bit  hard  on  my  manners,  goodwife," 
said  John.  "  Of  course  I  have  been  a  soldier,  and 
might  have  done  the  trick  of  paying  forage  with  a 
sergeant's  bluntness,  but  I  think  I  know  a  Gaelic 
woman's  spirit  better." 

"But  are  you  likely  to  be  passing  here  again  at 
any  time?"  cried  the  woman,  doubt  again  darken- 
ing her  face,  and  by  this  time  she  had  the  money 
in  her  hand.  "  I  thought  you  were  going  back  by 
the  Glen?" 

"That  was  our  notion,"  said  my  comrade,  mar- 
vellously ready,  "  but  to  tell  the  truth  we  are  curi- 
ous to  see  this  Keppoch  bard,  whose  songs  we 
know  very  well  in  real  Argile,  and  we  take  a  bit 
of  the  road  to  Kilcumin  after  him." 
-  ,^The  weakness  of  this  tale  was  not  apparent  to 
the  woman,  who  I  daresay  had  no  practice  of  such 
trickery  as  my  friend  was  the  master  of,  and  she 
put  the  money  carefully  in  a  napkin  and  in  a  recess 
beneath  one  of  the  roof-joists.  Our  thanks  she  took 
carelessly,  because  we  were  Campbells,  no  doubt. 


232  JOHN   SPLENDID 

I  was  starting  on  the  way  to  Inverlochy  when 
M'lver  protested  we  must  certainly  go  a  bit  of  the 
way  to  Kilcumin. 

"  I  'm  far  from  sure,"  said  he,  "  that  that  very 
particular  bit  of  MacDonald  woman  is  quite  con- 
fident of  the  truth  of  my  story.  At  any  rate  she  'a 
no  woman  if  she  's  not  turning  it  over  in  her  mind 
by  now,  and  she  '11  be  out  to  look  the  road  we 
take  before  very  long  or  I  'm  mistaken." 

We  turned  up  the  Kilcumin  road,  which  soon 
led  us  out  of  sight  of  the  hut,  and,  as  my  friend 
said,  a  glance  behind  us  showed  us  the  woman  in 
our  rear,  looking  after  us. 

"  Well,  there 's  no  turning  so  long  as  she 's 
there,"  said  I.  "I  wish  your  generosity  had  shown 
itself  in  a  manner  more  convenient  for  us.  There  's 
another  example  of  the  error  of  your  polite  and 
truthless  tongue.  When  you  knew  the  woman 
was  not  wanting  the  money,  you  should  have  put 
it  in  your  sporran  again,  and " 

"  Man,  Elrigmore,"  he  cried,  "  you  have  surely 
studied  me  poorly  if  you  would  think  me  the  man 
to  insult  the  woman  —  and  show  my  own  stupidity 
at  the  same  time  —  by  exposing  my  strategy  when 
a  bit  fancy  tale  and  a  short  daunder  on  a  pleasant 
morning  would  save  the  feelings  of  both  the  lady 
and  myself." 

"You  go  through  life  on  a  zigzag,"  I  protested, 
"  aiming  for  some  goal  that  another  would  cut 
straight  across  for,  making  deviations  of  an  hour 
to  save  you  a  second's  unpleasantness.  I  wish  I 
could  show  you  the  diplomacy  of  straightforward- 


JOHN    SPLENDID  233 

ness ;  the  honest  word,  though  hard  to  say  some- 
times, is  a  man's  duty  as  much  as  the  honest  deed 
of  hand." 

"  Am  I  not  as  honest  of  my  word  as  any  in  a 
matter  of  honour?  I  but  gloze  sometimes  for 
the  sake  of  the  affection  I  have  for  all  God's 
creatures." 

I  was  losing  patience  of  his  attitude  and  speak- 
ing perhaps  with  bitterness,  for  here  were  his  foolish 
ideas  of  punctilio  bringing  us  a  mile  or  two  off 
our  road  and  into  a  part  of  the  country  where  we 
were  more  certain  of  being  observed  by  enemies 
than  the  way  behind  us. 

"  You  jink  from  ambuscade  to  ambuscade  of 
phrase  like  a  fox,"  I  cried. 

"  Call  it  like  a  good  soldier,  and  I  '11  never 
quarrel  with  your  compliment,"  he  said  good- 
humouredly.  "  I  had  the  second  excuse  for  the 
woman  in  my  mind  before  the  first  one  missed  fire." 

"  Worse  and  worse  !  " 

'*  Not  a  bit  of  it ;  it  is  but  applying  a  rule  of 
fortification  to  a  peaceful  palaver.  Have  bastion 
and  ravelin  as  sure  as  may  be,  but  safer  still  the 
sally-port  of  retreat." 

I  stood  on  the  road  and  looked  at  him,  smiling 
very  smug  and  self-complacent  before  me,  and 
though  I  loved  the  man  I  felt  bound  to  prick  a 
hole  in  his  conceit. 

But  at  that  moment  a  dead  branch  snapped  in  a 
little  plantation  that  lay  by  the  way,  and  we  turned 
quickly  to  see  come  to  us  a  tall  lean  man  in  Mac- 
Donald  clothin"-. 


234  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XVni 

He  was  a  lantern-jawed,  sallow-faced,  high-browed 
fellow  in  his  prime,  with  the  merest  hint  of  a 
hirple  or  halt  in  his  walk,  very  shabby  in  his 
dress,  wearing  no  sporran,  but  with  a  dagger  bob- 
bing about  at  his  groin.  I  have  never  seen  a  man 
with  surprise  more  sharply  stamped  on  his  visage 
than  was  betra}'ed  by  this  one  when  he  got  close 
upon  us  and  found  two  of  a  clan  so  unlikely  to 
have  stray  members  out  for  a  careless  airing  on  a 
forenoon  in  Badcnoch. 

"You're  taking  your  walk?"  he  said,  with  a 
bantering  tone,  after  a  moment's  pause. 

"  You  could  n't  have  guessed  better,"  said  John. 
"  We  are  taking  all  we  're  likely  to  get  in  so  barren 
a  country." 

The  stranger  chuckled  sourly  as  the  three  of  us 
stood  in  a  group  surve}'ing  each  other.  "  My 
name,"  said  he,  in  his  odd  north  Gaelic,  and  throw- 
ing out  his  narrow  chest,  "  is  John  MacDonald. 
I  'm  Keppoch's  bard,  and  I  've  no  doubt  you  have 
heard  many  of  my  songs.  I  'm  namely  in  the 
world  for  the  best  songs  wit  ever  strung  together. 
Are  you  for  War?  I  can  stir  you  with  a  stave  to 
set  your  sinews  straining.  Are  you  for  the  music 
of  the  wood?  The  thrush  itself  would  be  jealous 
of  my  note.     Are  you   for  the  ditty  of  the  lover? 


JOHN    SPLENDID  235 

Here  's  the  songster  to  break  hearts.  Since  the 
start  of  time  there  have  been  'prentices  at  my 
trade :  I  have  challenged  North  and  East,  South, 
and  the  isle-flecked  sea,  and  they  cry  me  back 
their  master." 

M'lver  put  a   toe  en  one  of  mine,  and  said  he, 
"  Am  n't  I  the  unlucky  man,  for  I   never  heard  of 


you 


?" 


"Tut,  tut,"  cried  the  bard  in  a  fret,  "perhaps 
you  think  so  much  in  Argile  of  your  hedge-chanters 
that  you  give  the  lark  of  the  air  no  ear." 

"  We  have  so  many  poets  between  Knapdale  and 
Cruachan,"  said  John,  "that  the  business  is  fallen 
out  of  repute,  and  men  brag  when  they  can  make 
an  honest  living  at  prose." 

'*  Honest  living,"  said  the  bard,  "would  be  the 
last  thing  I  would  expect  Clan  Campbell  to 
brag  of" 

He  was  still  in  an  annoyance  at  the  set-back  to  his 
vanity,  shuffling  his  feet  restlessly  on  the  ground, 
and  ill  at  ease  about  the  mouth,  that  I  've  noticed 
is  the  first  feature  to  show  a  wound  to  the  conceit. 

"  Come,  come,"  he  went  on,  "  will  you  dare  tell 
me  that  the  shelling  singers  on  Loch  Finneside 
have  never  heard  my  '  Harp  of  the  Trees '  ?  If 
there  's  a  finer  song  of  its  kind  in  all  Albainn  I  've 
yet  to  learn  it." 

"  If  I  heard  it,"  said  John,  "  I  've  forgotten  it." 

"  Name  of  God  !  "  cried  the  bard  in  amaze,  "you 
couldn't;  it  goes  so,"  and  he  hummed  the  tune 
that  every  one  in  Argile  and  the  West  had  been 
singing  some  years  before. 


236  JOHN    SPLENDID 

Wc  pretended  to  listen  with  eagerness  to  recall 
a  single  strain  of  it,  and  affected  to  find  no  familiar 
note.  He  tried  others  of  his  budget  —  some  rare 
and  beautiful  songs,  I  must  frankly  own ;  some 
we  knew  by  fragments;  some  we  had  sung  in 
the  wood  of  Creag  Dubh  —  but  to  each  and  all 
John  Splendid  raised  a  vacant  face  and  denied 
acquaintance. 

"  No  doubt,"  said  he,  "  they  are  esteemed  in 
the  glens  of  Keppoch,  but  Argile  is  fairly  happ)- 
without  them.  Do  you  do  anything  else  for  a 
living  but  string  rhymes?" 

The  bard  was  in  a  sweat  of  vexation.  "  I  've 
wandered  far,"  said  he,  "  and  you  beat  all  I  met 
in  a  multitude  of  people.  Do  you  think  the 
stringing  of  rhymes  so  easy  that  a  man  should 
be  digging  and  toiling  in  the  field  and  the  wood 
between  his  diiaiis  ?  " 

"  I  think,"  said  Splendid  (and  it  was  the  only 
time  a  note  of  earnestness  was  in  his  utterance)  — 
"  I  think  his  songs  would  be  all  the  better  for 
some  such  manly  interregnum.  You  sing  of  bat- 
tles ;  have  yon  felt  the  blood  rush  behind  the  eyes 
and  the  void  of  courageous  alarm  at  the  pit  of  the 
stomach?  You  hum  of  grief;  have  you  known 
the  horror  of  a  desolate  home?  Love  —  Sir,  you 
are  young,  young " 

"Thanks  be  with  you,"  said  the  bard,  "your 
last  word  gives  me  the  clue  to  my  answer  to  your 
first.  I  have  neither  fought  nor  sorrowed  in  the 
actual  fact;  but  I  have  loved,  not  a  maid  (per- 
haps),  nor   in  errant  freaks  of  the   mind,  but  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  237 

something  unnameable  and  remote,  with  a  boun- 
teous overflowing  of  the  spirit.  And  that  way 
I  learned  the  splendour  of  war  as  I  sat  b}'  the 
fire;  and  the  widows  of  my  fancy  wring  my  heart 
with  a  sorrow  as  deep  as  the  ruined  homes  your 
clan  have  made  in  my  country  could  confer." 

I  'm  afraid  I  but  half  comprehended  his  mean- 
ing, but  the  rapture  of  his  eye  infected  me  like  a 
glisk  of  the  sun.  He  was  a  plain,  gawky,  nervous 
man,  very  freckled  at  the  hands,  and  as  poor  a  leg 
in  the  kilt  as  well  could  be.  He  was  fronting  us 
with  the  unspoken  superiority  of  the  fowl  on  its 
own  midden,  but  he  had  a  most  heartsome  and 
invigorating  glow. 

"John  Lom,  John  Lom  !  "  I  cried,  "I  heard  a 
soldier  sing  your  songs  in  the  ship  Archangel  of 
Leith  that  took  us  to  Elsinore." 

He  turned  with  a  grateful  eye  from  M'lvcr  to  me, 
and  I  felt  that  I  had  one  friend  now  in  Badenoch. 

"Do  you  tell  me?"  he  asked,  a  very  child  in 
his  pleasure,  that  John  Splendid  told  me  after  he 
had  not  the  heart  to  mar.  "  Which  one  did 
they  sing,  '  The  Harp  of  the  Trees  '  or  '  Macran- 
nul  Og's  Lament?'  I  am  sure  it  would  be  the 
Lament;  it  is  touched  with  the  sorrow  of  the 
starless  night  on  a  rain-drummed,  wailing  sea. 
Or  perhaps  they  knew  —  the  gentle  hearts — my 
'  Farewell  to  the  Fisher.'  I  made  it  with  }'on 
tremor  of  joy,  and  it  is  telling  of  the  far  isles  be- 
yond Uist  and  Barra  and  the  Seven  Hunters,  and 
the  white  sands  of  Colomkill." 

MTver  sat  down  on  the  wayside  and  whittled  a 


238  JOHN   SPLENDID 

stick  with  a  pretence  at  patience  I  knew  he  could 
scarcely  feel,  for  we  were  fools  to  be  dallying  thus 
on  the  way  in  broad  morning  when  we  should  be 
harking  back  to  our  friends  as  secretly  as  the  fox. 

"Were  you  on  the  ocean?"  he  asked  the  bard, 
whose  rapture  was  not  abated. 

"  Never,"  said  he,  "  but  I  know  Linnhe  and 
Loch  Eil  and  the  fringe  of  Morar." 

"Mere  dubs,"  said  M'lver,  pleasantly  —  "mere 
dubs  or  ditches.  Now  I,  Barbreck,  have  been 
upon  the  deeps,  tossed  for  days  at  hazard  without 
a  headland  to  the  view.  I  may  have  made  verse 
on  the  experience  —  I  '11  not  say  yea  or  nay  to 
that  —  but  I  never  gave  a  lochan  credit  for  wash- 
ing the  bulged  sides  of  the  world." 

"  You  had  n't  fancy  for  it,  my  good  fellow,"  said 
the  bard,  angry  again.  "  I  forgot  to  say  that  I 
saw  Loch  Finne  too,  and  the  Galley  of  Lorn 
taking  MacCailein  oft"  from  his  castle.  I  'm  mak- 
ing a  song  on  that  now." 

"Touched!  "  thinks  I,  for  it  was  a  rapier-point 
at  my  comrade's  very  marrow.  He  reddened  at 
once,  pulled  down  his  brows,  and  scanned  the 
bard  of  Keppoch,  who  showed  his  knowledge  of 
his  advantage. 

"  If  I  were  you,"  said  John  in  a  little,  "  I  would 
not  put  the  finish  on  that  ditty  till  I  learned  the 
end  of  the  transaction.  Perhaps  MacCailein  (and 
God  bless  my  chief!)  is  closer  on  Lochiel  and 
Lochaber  to-day  than  you  give  him  credit  for." 

"  Say  nothing  about  that,"  said  I  warningh'  in 
English    to    my    friend,    never    knowing    (what    I 


JOHN    SPLENDID  239 

learned  on  a  later  occasion)  that  John  Loin  had 
the  language  as  well  as  myself. 

'*  When  MacCailein  comes  here,"  said  the  bard, 
"  he  '11  get  a  Badenoch  welcome." 

"  And  that  is  the  thief's  welcome,  the  shirt  off 
his  very  back,"  cried  M'lvcr. 

"Off  his  back  very  likely,"  said  the  bard,  "it's 
the  back  we  see  oftenest  of  the  bonny  gentleman." 

M'lver  grew  livid  to  the  very  lip,  and  sprung  to 
his  feet,  clutching  with  great  menace  the  black 
knife  he  had  been  whittling  with.  Not  a  bit 
abashed  the  bard  pulled  out  his  dirk,  and  there 
was  like  to  be  a  pretty  to-do  when  I  put  between 
them. 

The  issue  of  the  quarrel  that  thus  I  retarded 
was  postponed  altogether  by  a  circimistance  that 
changed  the  whole  course  of  our  adventure  in  this 
wild  country;  severed  us  at  a  sharp  wrench  from 
the  Campbell  regiments,  and  gave  us  the  chance 
—  very  unwelcome  it  was  —  of  beholding  the  man- 
ner of  war  followed  by  Alasdair  MacDonald's 
savage  tribes.  It  happened  in  a  flash,  without 
warning.  No  blow  had  been  struck  by  the  two 
gentlemen  at  variance,  when  we  were  all  three 
thrown  to  the  ground,  and  the  bound  prisoners 
of  a  squad  of  Macgregors  who  had  got  out  of 
the  thicket  and  round  us  unobserved  in  the  heat 
of  the  argument. 

They  treated  us  all  alike  —  the  bard  as  curt  as 
the  Campbells,  in  spite  of  his  tartan  —  and  without 
exchanging  an}'  words  with  us  marched  us  before 
them  on  a  journey  of  several  hours  to  Kilcumin. 


240  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Long  or  ever  we  reached  Kile u mi n  we  were 
manifestly  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Montrose's 
force.  His  pickets  held  the  road ;  the  hillsides 
mov^ed  with  his  scouts.  On  a  plain  called  Leiter- 
nan-lub  the  battalion  lay  camped,  a  mere  frag- 
ment of  the  force  that  brought  ruin  to  Argile's 
Athole  men  under  the  Tutor  of  Struan,  Stewarts 
of  Appin,  Maclans  of  Glencoe,  a  few  of  the  more 
sedate  men  of  Glengarry,  Keppoch,  and  Maclean, 
as  well  ^  as  a  handful  of  the  Gregaraich  who  had 
captured  us.  It  was  the  nightfall  when  we  were 
turned  into  the  presence  of  Sir  Alasdair,  who  was 
sitting  imder  a  few  ells  of  canvas  playing  cartes 
with  some  chieftains  by  the  light  of  a  fir  root  fire. 

"  Whom  have  we  here?  "  said  he,  never  stopping 
for  more  than  a  glimpse  of  us. 

"Two  Campbells  and  a  man  who  says  he's  bard 
of  Keppoch,"  he  was  told. 

"A  spy  in  an  honest  tartan,  no  doubt,"  said  Sir 
Alasdair ;  "  but  we  '11  put  it  to  the  test  with  Kep- 
poch himself;  tell  him  to  come  over  and  throw 
an  eye  on  the  fellow." 

Keppoch  was  sent  for  and  came  across  from  a 
fire  at  another  part  of  the  field,  a  hiccough  at  his 
throat  and  a  blear  look  in  his  eye,  as  one  that  has 
been  overly  brisk  with  the  bottle,  but  still  and  on 
the  gentleman  and  in  a  very  good  humour. 

"Here's  m\'  bard,  sure  enough,"  he  cried; 
"John,  John,  what  do  you  seek  in  Kilcumin,  and 
in  Campbell  company,  too?" 

"The  company  is  none  of  my  seeking,"  said 
John   Lom,   very  short  and  blunt.     "And  we're 


JOHN   SPLENDID  241 

like  to  have  a  good  deal  more  of  the  same  clan's 
company  than  we  want  before  long,  for  Argile 
and  his  clan  to  three  times  your  number  are  at 
Inverlochy.  I  have  tramped  a  weary  day  to  tell 
you  the  tale,  and  I  get  but  a  spy's  reception." 

The  tale  went  round  the  camp  in  the  time  a 
man  would  whistle  an  air.  Up  came  Montrose 
on  the  instant,  and  he  was  the  first  to  give  us  a 
civil  look.  But  for  him  we  had  no  doubt  got  a 
short  quittance  from  MacColkitto,  who  was  for 
the  tow  gravatte  on  the  spot.  Instead  we  were 
put  on  parole  when  his  lordship  learned  we  had 
been  Cavaliers  of  fortune.  The  moon  rose  with 
every  sign  of  storm,  the  mountains  lay  about 
white  to  their  foundations,  and  ardent  winds 
belched  from  the  glens,  but  by  mountain  and 
glen  MacDonald  determined  to  get  round  on  the 
flank  of  Argile. 


>42  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XIX 

The  month  of  January,  as  our  old  Gaelic  notion 
has  it,  borrows  three  clays  from  July  for  a  bribe  of 
three  young  lambs.  Those  three  days  we  call 
FaoiltcacJi,  and  often  they  are  very  genial  and 
cheerful  days,  with  a  sun  that  in  warmth  is  a 
sample  of  the  mellow  season  at  hand.  But  this 
year,  as  my  history  has  shown,  we  had  no  sign  of 
a  good  FaoiltcacJi,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  last 
clay  of  January,  when  Alasdair  MacDonald's  army 
set  over  the  hills,  it  was  wild,  tempestuous  weather. 
A  wind  rose  in  the  dawning  and  increased  in 
vehemence  as  the  day  aged,  and  with  it  came  a 
storm  of  snow  —  the  small  bitter  sifting  snow 
that,  encountered  on  the  hill,  stings  like  the  ant 
and  drifts  in  monstrous  and  impassable  wreaths. 
Round  about  us  yawned  the  glens,  to  me  nameless, 
mysterious,  choked  to  the  throat  with  snow-mist 
that  flapped  and  shook  like  gray  rags.  The  fields 
were  bleak  and  empty;  the  few  houses  that  lay 
in  the  melancholy  plain  were  on  no  particularly 
friendly  terms  with  this  convocation  of  ICrsemen 
and  wild  kerns;  they  shut  their  doors  steadfastly 
on  our  doings,  and  gave  us  not  even  the  compli- 
ment of  looking  on  at  our  strange  manrcuvres. 
There  was   but  one   exception,   in   a  staunch    and 


JOHN    SPLENDID  243 

massive  dwelling  —  a  manifest  baron  keep  or  stout 
domicile  of  that  nature  just  on  the  border  of  the 
field  in  which  the  camp  was  pitched ;  it  was 
apparently  in  the  charge  of  two  old  spinster  sis- 
ters whose  men-folk  were  afield  somewhere  else, 
for  they  had  shuttered  the  windows,  barricaded 
the  doors,  and  ever  and  anon  would  they  show 
blanched  faces  as  the  tumult  of  our  preparation 
disturbed  them,  and  they  came  to  the  door  and 
cunningly  pulled  it  open  a  little  and  looked  out  on 
this  warlike  array.  If  a  soldier  made  a  step  in 
their  direction  they  fled  inside  with  terror,  and 
their  cries  rang  in  the  interior. 

Those  two  spinsters  —  very  white,  very  thin  clad 
for  a  morn  so  rigorous,  and  with  a  trepidation  writ 
on  every  feature — were  all  that  saw  us  off"  on  our 
march  to  the  southeast.  They  came  out  and  stood 
hand  in  hand  on  the  door  stoop,  and  I  have  little 
doubt  the  honest  bodies  thanked  the  God  of  Israel 
that  the  spoilers  were  departed  furth  their  neigh- 
bourhood. 

The  country  we  now  plunged  into,  as  may  be 
guessed,  was  a  terra  incognita  to  me.  Beyond  that 
it  was  Badenoch  and  an  unhealthy  clime  for  all 
that  wear  the  Campbell  tartan,  I  could  guess  no 
more.  It  was  after  these  little  wars  were  over 
I  discovered  the  names  of  the  localities,  the  glens, 
mounts,  passes,  streams,  and  drove-roads  over 
which  we  passed  in  a  march  that  Gustavus  never 
faced  the  like  of 

With  good  judgment  enough  our  captors  put 
a  small  advance-guard  ahead,  a  score  of  Airlie's 


244  JOHN   SPLENDID 

troopers,  swanky  blaspheming  persons,  whose 
horses  pranced  very  gaily  up  Glen  Tarf,  guided 
by  John  Lorn.  M'lv^er  and  I  walked  together  with 
the  main  body,  quite  free  and  unfettered,  some- 
times talking  with  affability  to  our  captors.  The 
Irish  were  in  good  humour;  they  cracked  jokes 
with  us  in  their  peculiar  Gaelic  that  at  first  is  ill 
for  a  decent  Gael  of  Albion  to  follow,  if  uttered 
rapidly,  but  soon  becomes  as  familiar  as  the  less 
foreign  language  of  the  Athole  men,  whose  tongue 
we  Argiles  find  some  strange  conceits  in.  If  the 
Irish  were  affable,  the  men  of  our  own  side  of 
the  ocean  were  most  singularly  morose  —  small 
wonder,  perhaps,  for  w^e  have  little  reason  to  love 
each  other.  Sour  dogs  !  they  gloomed  at  us  under 
their  bonnets  and  swore  in  their  beards.  I  have 
no  doubt  but  for  their  gentry  there  had  been  dirks 
in  us  before  we  reached  Corryarick. 

It  was  with  the  repartee  of  the  Irish  and  the 
scowls  of  the  Gaels  we  went  up  the  rough  valley 
of  the  Tarf,  where  the  wind  moaned  most  drearily 
and  drove  the  thin  fine  snow  like  a  smoke  of  burn- 
ing heather.  But  when  we  got  to  the  pass  of 
Corryarick,  our  trials  began,  and  then  such  spirit 
did  MTver  put  in  the  struggle  with  the  task  before 
us,  such  snatches  of  song,  sharp  saying  and  old 
story — such  comradcry  as  it  might  be  named, 
that  wc  were  on  good  terms  with  all.  For  your 
man  of  family  the  Gael  has  ever  some  regard. 
M'hcr  (not  to  speak  of  myself)  was  so  manifestly 
the  (iniuc-uasail  that  the  coarsest  of  the  company 
fell  into  a  polite  tone,  helped  to  their  manners  to 


JOHN    SPLENDID  245 

some  degree  no  doubt  by  the  example  of  Montrose 
and  Airlie,  who  at  the  earliest  moments  of  our 
progress  walked  beside  us  and  discoursed  on  letters 
and  hunting,  and  soldiering  in  the  foreign  wars. 

The  pass  of  Corryarick  met  us  with  a  girning 
face  and  white  fangs.  On  Tarfside  there  was  a 
rough  bridle-path  that  the  wind  swept  the  snow 
from,  and  our  progress  was  fairly  easy.  Here  the 
drifts  lay  waist  high,  the  horses  plunged  to  the 
belly-bands,  the  footmen  pushed  through  in  a 
sweat.  It  was  like  some  Hyperborean  hell,  and 
we  the  doomed  wretches  sentenced  to  our  eternity 
of  toil.v  We  had  to  climb  up  the  shoulder  of  the 
hill,  now  among  tremendous  rocks,  now  through 
water  unfrozen,  now  upon  wind-swept  ice,  but  the 
snow  —  the  snow  —  the  heartless  snow  was  our 
constant  companion.  It  stood  in  walls  before,  it 
lay  in  ramparts  round  us,  it  wearied  the  eye  to  a 
most  numbing  pain.  Unlucky  were  they  who  wore 
trews,  for  the  same  clung  damply  to  knee  and 
haunch  and  froze,  while  the  stinging  sleet  might 
flay  the  naked  limb  till  the  blood  rose  among  the 
felt  of  the  kilted,  but  the  suppleness  of  the  joints 
was  unmarred. 

It  was  long  beyond  noon  when  we  reached  the 
head  of  the  pass  and  saw  before  us  the  dip  of  the 
valley  of  the  Spey.  We  were  lost  in  a  wilderness 
of  mountain  peaks ;  the  bens  started  about  us  on 
every  hand  like  the  horrors  of  a  nightmare,  every 
ben  with  its  death  sheet,  menacing  us,  poor  insects, 
crawling  in  our  pain  across  the  landscape, 

I  thought  we  had  earned  a  halt  and  a  bite  of 


246  JOHN   SPLENDID 

meat  by  this  forenoon  of  labour;  and  Montrose 
himself,  who  had  walked  the  pass  on  foot  like  his 
fellows,  seemed  anxious  to  rest,  but  Sir  Alasdair 
pushed  us  on  like  a  fate  relentless. 

"  On,  on,"  he  cried,  waving  his  long  arms  to  the 
prospect  before  ;  "  here  's  but  the  start  of  our  jour- 
ney ;  far  is  the  way  before ;  strike  fast,  strike  hot ! 
Would  ye  eat  a  meal  with  appetite  while  the  Diar- 
maids  wait  in  the  way?  " 

M'lver,  who  was  plodding  beside  MacDonald 
when  he  said  these  words,  gave  a  laugh.  "Take 
your  time.  Sir  Sandy,"  said  he ;  "  you  '11  need  a 
bowl  or  two  of  brose  ere  you  come  to  grips  with 
MacCailein." 

*'  We  '11  never  come  to  grips  with  MacCailein," 
said  MacDonald,  taking  the  badinage  in  good  part, 
"  so  long  as  he  has  a  back-gate  to  go  out  at  or  a 
barge  to  sail  off  in." 

"  I  could  correct  you  on  that  point  in  a  little 
affair  of  arms  as  between  gentlemen  —  if  the 
time  and  place  were  more  suitable,"  said  M'lver 
warmly. 

"  Let  your  chief  defend  himself,  friend,"  said 
MacDonald.  "  Man,  I  '11  wager  we  never  see 
the  colour  of  his  face  when  it  comes  to  close 
quarters." 

"  I  would  n't  wonder,"  I  ventured.  "  He  is  in 
no  great  trim  for  fighting,  for  his  arm  is " 

Sir  Alasdair  gave  a  gesture  of  contempt  and 
cried,  "  Faugh  !  we  've  heard  of  the  raxed  arm  ; 
he  took  care  when  he  was  making  his  tale  that  he 
never  made  it  a  raxed  leg." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  247 

Montrose  edged  up  at  this,  with  a  red  face  and 
a  somewhat  annoyed  expression.  He  put  his 
gloved  hand  Hghtly  on  MacDonald's  shoulder  and 
chided  him  for  debate  with  a  prisoner  of  war. 

"  Let  our  friends  be,  Alasdair,"  he  said,  quietly. 
"  They  are,  in  a  way,  our  guests ;  they  would 
perhaps  be  more  welcome  if  their  tartan  was  a 
different  hue,  but  in  any  case  we  must  not  be 
insulting  them.  Doubtless  they  have  their  own 
ideas  of  his  lordship  of  Argile " 

"  I  never  ask  to  serve  a  nobler  or  a  more 
generous  chief,"  said  MTver,  firmly. 

"  I  would  expect  no  other  sentiment  from  a 
gentleman  of  Argile's  clan.  He  has  ever  done 
honestly  enough  by  his  own  people.  But  have  we 
not  had  enough  of  this?  We  are  wasting  our  wind 
that  should  be  more  precious  considering  the  toils 
before   us." 

We  found  the  descent  of  Corryarick  even  more 
ill  than  its  climbing.  The  wind  from  the  east  had 
driven  the  snow  into  the  mouth  of  it  like  a  wedge. 
The  horses,  stepping  ahead,  more  than  once  slipped 
into  drifts  that  rose  to  their  necks.  Then  they 
became  wild  with  terror,  dashed  with  frantic  hoofs 
into  deeper  trouble,  or  ran  back,  quivering  in 
every  sinew  and  snorting  with  affright  till  the 
troopers  behove  to  dismount  and  lead  them.  When 
we  in  the  van  reached  the  foot  of  the  corric  we 
looked  back  on  a  spectacle  that  fills  me  with  new 
wonder  to  this  day  when  I  think  of  it  —  a  stream 
of  black  specks  in  the  distance  dropping,  as  it 
were,  down  the  sheer  face  of  white ;  nearer,  the 


248  JOHN   SPLENDID 

broken  bands  of  different  clansmen  winding  noise- 
lessly and  painfull)-  among  the  drifts,  their  kilts 
pinned  between  their  thighs,  their  plaids  crossed 
on  their  chests  —  all  their  weapons  a  weariness  to 
them. 

In  the  afternoon  the  snow  ceased  to  fall,  but  the 
dusk  came  on  early  notwithstanding,  for  the  sky 
was  blotted  over  with  driving  clouds. 

At  the  head  of  Glen  Roy  the  MacDonalds,  who 
had  lost  their  bauchles  of  brogues  in  the  pass, 
started  to  a  trot,  and  as  the  necessity  was  we  had 
to  take  up  the  pace  too.  Long  lank  hounds,  they 
took  the  road  like  deer,  their  limbs  purple  with 
the  cold,  their  faces  pinched  to  the  aspect  of  the 
wolf,  their  targets  and  muskets  clattering  about 
them.  "  There  arc  Campbells  to  slay,  and  sup- 
pers to  eat,"  the  Major-General  had  said.  It  would 
have  given  his  most  spiritless  followers  the  pith 
to  run  till  morning  across  a  strand  of  rock  and 
pebble.  They  knew  no  tiring,  they  seemingly  felt 
no  pain  in  their  torn  and  bleeding  feet,  but  put 
mile  after  mile  below  them. 

But  the  Campbells  were  not  in  Glen  Roy. 
They  had  been  there  and  skirmished  for  a  day 
among  their  old  foes  and  had  gone  back  to  Lochy- 
side,  little  thinking  the  fires  they  left  in  the  Cam- 
eron barns  at  morning  would  light  the  enemy  on 
ere  night.  The  roofs  still  smouldered,  and  a 
granary  here  and  there  on  the  sides  of  the  valley 
sent  up  its  flames,  at  once  a  spur  to  the  spirit  of 
the  MacDonalds  and  a  light  to  their  vengeance. 

We  halted  for  the   night  in  Glen  Spcan,    with 


JOHN   SPLENDID  249 

Ben  Chluraig  looming  high  to  the  south,  and  the 
river  gulping  in  ice  beside  our  camp.  Around 
was  plenty  of  wood  ;  we  built  fires  and  ate  as  poor 
a  meal  as  the  Highlands  ever  granted  in  a  bad 
year,  though  it  was  the  first  break  in  our  fast  for 
the  day.  Gentle  and  simple,  all  fared  alike  —  a 
whang  of  barley  bannock,  a  stir-about  of  oat-and- 
water,  without  salt,  a  quaich  of  spirits  from  some 
kegs  the  troopers  carried,  that  ran  done  before 
the  half  of  the  corps  had  been  served.  Sentinels 
were  posted,  and  we  slept  till  the  morning  pipe 
with  sweet  weariness  in  our  bones. 

Our  second  day  was  a  repetition  of  the  first. 
We  left  without  even  a  breakfast  whenever  the 
pipers  set  up  the  Cameron  rant,  "  Sons  of  the  dogs, 
oh  !  Come  and  get  flesh."  The  Campbells  had 
spoiled  the  bridge  with  a  charge  of  powder,  so 
we  had  to  ford  the  river  among  the  ice-lumps, 
MacDonald  showing  the  way  with  his  kilt-tail 
about  his  waist.  A  hunter  from  a  hamlet  at  the 
glen  foot  gladly  left  the  smoking  ruin  of  his  home 
and  guided  us  on  a  drove-road  into  the  wilds  of 
Lochaber,  among  mountains  more  stupendous  than 
those  we  had  left  behind.  These  relentless  peaks 
were  clad  with  blinding  snow.  The  same  choking 
drifts  that  met  us  in  Corryarick  filled  the  passes 
between  Stob  Choire  and  Easan  Mor  and  Stob 
Ban,  that  cherish  the  snow  in  their  crannies  in  the 
depths  of  midsummer.  Hunger  was  eating  at  our 
hearts  when  we  got  to  Glen  Nevis ;  but  the  glen 
was  empty  of  people,  and  the  second  night  fell 
ere  we  broke  fast. 


250  JOHN    SPLENDID 

I  have  hungered  many  times  on  weary  marches, 
but  yon  was  the  most  cruel  hunger  of  my  Hfe. 
And  though  the  pain  of  the  starving  could  be 
dulled  a  little  by  draughts  of  water  from  the  way- 
side springs,  what  there  was  no  remedy  for  was  the 
weakness  that  turned  the  flesh  in  every  part  of 
me  to  a  nerveless  pulp.  I  went  down  Nevis  Glen 
a  man  in  a  delirium.  My  head  swam  with  vapours, 
so  that  the  hillside  seemed  to  dance  round  and 
before  me.  If  I  had  fallen  in  the  snow  I  should 
assuredly  have  lain  there  and  died,  and  the  thought 
of  how  simple  and  sweet  it  would  be  to  stretch 
out  my  heavy  limbs  and  sleep  the  sleep  for 
ever,  more  than  once  robbed  me  of  my  will. 
Some  of  the  Stewarts  and  Camerons,  late  recruits 
to  the  army,  and  as  yet  not  inured  to  its  toils,  fell 
on  the  wayside  half-way  down  the  glen.  Mac- 
Donald  was  for  leaving  them  —  "  We  have  no 
need  for  weaklings,"  he  said  cruelly,  fuming  at 
the  delay;  but  their  lairds  gave  him  a  sharp 
answer,  and  said  they  would  bide  by  them  till  they 
had  recovered.  Thus  a  third  of  our  force  fell  be- 
hind us  in  the  march,  and  I  would  have  been 
behind,  too,  but  for  MTver's  encouragement.  His 
songs  were  long  done ;  his  stories  chilled  on  his 
lip.  The  hunger  had  him  at  the  heart;  but  he 
had   a  lion's  will  and  a  lion's  vigour. 

"  For  the  love  of  God  !  "  he  said  to  me,  "  do 
not  let  them  think  we  are  so  much  of  the  Cove- 
nanter that  wc  cannot  keep  up !  P'or  a  Scots 
Cavalier  you  are  giving  in  over  early." 

"  Campaigning    with    Lumsden    was    never    like 


JOHN   SPLENDID  251 

this,"  I  pled  wearily;  "give  me  the  open  road 
and  an  enemy  before  me,  and  I  would  tramp  gaily 
to  the  world's  end.  Here  's  but  a  choked  ravine 
the  very  deer  abhor  in  such  weather,  and  before 
us  but  a  battle  we  must  not  share  in." 

He  said  never  a  word  for  a  few  moments,  but 
trudged  on.  My  low-heeled  shoon  were  less  fitted 
for  the  excursion  than  his  close-thonged  brogues 
that  clung  to  the  feet  like  a  dry  glove,  and  I 
walked  lamely.  Ever  and  anon  he  would  look 
askance  at  me,  and  I  was  annoyed  that  he  should 
think  me  a  poorer  mountaineer  than  those  un- 
wearied knaves  who  hurried  us.  I  must  have 
shown  my  feeling  in  my  face,  for  in  a  little  he 
let-on  to  fall  lame,  too,  and  made  the  most  griev- 
ous complaint  of  ache  and  weariness.  His  pre- 
tence deceived  me  only  for  a  little.  He  was  only 
at  his  old  quirk  of  keeping  me  in  good  repute 
with  myself,  but  he  played  the  part  with  skill,  let- 
ting us  both  fall  behind  the  general  company  a 
little  so  that  the  MacDonalds  might  not  witness 
the  indignity  of  it. 

Glen  Nevis,  as  I  saw  it  that  night  in  the  light  of 
the  moon,  is  what  comes  to  me  now  in  my  dreams. 
I  smell  the  odour  of  the  sweat-drenched,  uncleanly 
deeding  of  those  savage  clans  about  us;  I  see  the 
hills  lift  on  either  hand  with  splintered  peaks  that 
prick  among  the  stars;  gorge  and  ravine  and  the 
wide  ascending  passes  filled  ever  with  the  sound 
of  the  river,  and  the  coarse,  narrow  drove-road 
leads  into  despair.  That  night  the  moon  rode  at 
the  full  about  a  vacant  sky.     There  was  not  even 


252  JOHN   SPLENDID 

a  vapour  on  the  hills ;  the  wind  had  failed  in  the 
afternoon. 

At  the  foot  of  the  hill  Carn  Dearg  (or  the  Red 
Mount),  that  is  one  of  three  gallant  mountains 
that  keep  company  for  Nevis  Ben  the  biggest  of 
all,  the  path  we  followed  made  a  twist  to  the  left 
into  a  gully  from  which  a  blast  of  the  morning's 
wind  had  cleaned  out  the  snow  as  by  a  giant's 
spade. 

So  much  the  worse  for  us,  for  now  the  path  lay 
strewn  with  boulders  that  the  dragoons  took  long 
to  thread  through,  and  the  bare  feet  of  the  private 
soldiers  bled  redly  anew.  Some  lean  high  fir- 
trees  threw  this  part  into  a  shadow,  and  so  it  hap- 
pened that  as  I  felt  my  way  wearily  on,  I  fell  over 
a  stone.  The  fall  lost  me  the  last  of  my  senses; 
I  but  heard  some  of  the  Stewarts  curse  me  for  an 
encumbrance  as  they  stumbled  over  me  and  passed 
on,  heedless  of  my  fate,  and  saw,  as  in  a  dream, 
one  of  them  who  had  abraded  his  knees  by  his 
stumble  over  my  body,  turn  round  with  a  drawn 
knife  that  glinted  in  a  shred  of  moonlight. 

I  came  to,  with  MTver  bent  over  me,  and  none 
of  our  captors  at  hand. 

"  I  had  rather  this  than  a  thousand  rix-dollars," 
said  he,  as  I  sat  up  and  leaned  on  my  arm. 

"  Have  they  left  us?"  I  asked,  with  no  particu- 
lar interest  in  the  answer.  It  could  work  little 
difference  whatever  it  might  be.  "  I  thought  I 
saw  one  of  them  turn  on    me.  with  a  knife." 

"You  did,"  said  M'lver.  "He  broke  his  part 
of  the  parole,   and    is    lying  on   the  other  side  of 


JOHN   SPLENDID  253 

you,  I  think  with  a  hole  in  his  breast.  An  ugly 
and  a  treacherous  scamp  !  It 's  lucky  for  us  that 
Montrose  or  MacColkitto  never  saw  the  trans- 
action between  this  clay  and  John  M'lver,  or  their 
clemency  had  hardly  been  so  great.  '  You  can 
bide  and  see  to  your  friend,'  was  James  Grahame's 
last  words,  and  that 's  the  reason  I  'm  here." 

M'lver  lifted  me  to  my  feet,  and  we  stood  a 
little  to  think  what  we  should  do.  My  own  mind 
had  no  idea  save  the  one  that  we  were  bound  to 
keep  in  touch  with  the  company  whose  prisoners 
we  were,  but  M'lver  hinted  at  an  alternative  scarce 
so  honest — namely,  a  desertion  and  a  detour  to 
the  left  that  would  maybe  lead  us  to  the  Campbell 
army  before  active  hostilities  began. 

"You  would  surely  not  break  parole?"  said  I, 
surprised,  for  he  was  usually  as  honourable  in  such 
matters  as  any  Highlander  I  ever  met. 

"  Bah  !  "  he  cried,  pretending  contempt  at  hesi- 
tation, though  I  could  perceive  by  his  voice  he 
was  somewhat  ashamed  of  the  policy  he  proposed. 
"  Who  quitted  the  contract  first?  Was  it  not  that 
Stewart  gentleman  on  your  other  side  who  broke 
it  in  a  most  dastardly  way  by  aiming  at  your 
life?" 

"  I  'm  thankful  for  the  life  you  saved,  John," 
said  I,  "little  worth  though  it  seems  at  this  time, 
but  Montrose  is  not  to  be  held  responsible  for  the 
sudden  impulse  of  a  private.  We  made  our  pact 
as  between  gentleman  and  gentleman,  —  let  us  be 
going." 

"  Oh,  very  well !  "  said  he,  shortly.     "  Let  us  be 


254  JOHN    SPLENDID 

going.  After  all,  we  are  in  a  trap  any  way  we 
look  at  all ;  for  half  the  Stewarts  and  Camerons 
are  behind  in  the  wood  there,  and  our  flank  retreat 
among  these  hills  might  be  a  tempting  of  Provi- 
dence. But  are  you  thinking  of  this  Athole  corp 
and  what  his  kin  will  be  doing  to  his  slayers?  " 

"  I  '11  risk  it,"  I  said  shortly.  "  We  may  be  out 
of  their  hands  one  way  or  the  other  before  they 
miss  him." 

On  a  sudden  there  rose  away  before  us  toward 
the  mouth  of  the  glen  the  sound  of  a  bagpipe.  It 
came  on  the  tranquil  air  with  no  break  in  its  up- 
roar, and  after  a  preparatory  tuning  it  broke  into 
a  tune  called  "  Cogadh  no  Sith "  —  an  ancient 
braggart  pibroch  made  by  one  Macruimen  of  the 
Isle  of  Skye  —  a  tune  that  was  commonly  used  by 
the  Campbells  as  a  night-retreat  or  tattoo. 

My  heart  filled  with  the  strain.  It  gave  me  not 
only  the  simple  illusion  that  I  saw  again  the  regi- 
mentals of  my  native  country  —  many  a  friend 
and  comrade  among  them  in  the  shelter  of  the 
Castle  of  Inverlochy,  but  it  roused  in  me  a  spirit 
very  antique,  very  religious  and  moving,  too,  as 
the  music  of  his  own  land  must  be  for  every  honest 
Gael. 

"  Cniachan gu  bragh  !  "  I  said  lightly  to  M'lvcr, 
though  my  heart  was  full. 

He  was  as  much  touched  by  that  homely  lilt  as 
myself.  "The  old  days,  the  old  styles!  "  said  he. 
"  God  !  how  that  pibroch  stings  me  to  the  core  !  " 
And  as  the  tune  came  more  clearly  in  the  second 
part,  or  CrniilnadJi  as  we  call  it,  and  the  player 


JOHN   SPLENDID  255 

maybe  came  round  a  bend  of  the  road,  my  com- 
rade stopped  in  his  pace,  and  added  with  what  in 
another  I  might  have  thought  a  sob  —  "I  've 
trudged  the  world  ;  I  've  learned  many  bravadoes, 
so  that  my  heart  never  stirred  much  to  the  mere 
trick  of  an  instrument  but  one,  and  the  piod  vihor 
conquers  me.  What  is  it,  Colin,  that's  in  us,  rich 
and  poor,  yon  rude  cane-reeds  speak  so  human 
and  friendly  to  ?  " 

"  'Tis  the  Gaelic,"  I  said,  cheered  myself  by  the 
air.  "  Never  a  roar  of  the  drone  or  a  sob  of  the 
chanter  but's  in  the  Gaelic  tongue." 

"  Maybe,"  said  he,  "  maybe ;  I  've  heard  the 
scholars  like  yourself  say  the  sheepskin  and  the 
drones  were  Roman  —  that  or  Spanish,  it 's  all  one 
to  me.  I  heard  them  at  Boitzenburg  when  we 
gave  the  butt  of  the  gun  to  Tilly's  soldados  ;  they 
played  us  into  Holstein ;  and  when  the  ditch  of 
Stralsung  was  choked  with  the  tartan  of  Mackay, 
and  our  lads  were  falling  like  corn  before  the  hook, 
a  Reay  piper  stood  valiantly  in  front  and  played  a 
salute.     Then  and  now  it 's  the  pipes,  my  darling  !  " 

"  I  would  as  lief  have  them  in  a  gayer  strain. 
My  fondest  memories  are  of  reels  I  've  danced  to 
their  playing,"  I  said  ;  and  by  now  we  were  walking 
down  the  glen, 

"And  of  one  reel  you  danced,"  said  he,  quiz- 
zingly,  "  not  more  than  two  months  gone  in  a  town 
that  was  called  Inneraora?" 

"Two  months!"  I  cried  —  "two  months!  I 
could  have  sworn  offhand  we  have  been  wander- 
ing in  Lorn  and  Badenoch  for  as  many  years !  " 


256  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Such  spirit  did  my  native  pipes,  played  by  a 
clansman,  put  in  me  that  my  weariness  much 
abated,  and  we  made  great  progress  down  the 
glen,  so  that  before  the  tune  had  ceased  we  were 
on  the  back  of  Montrose's  men  as  they  crept  on 
quietly  in  the   night. 

The  piper  stopped  suddenly  enough  when  some 
shots  rang  out  —  an  exchange  of  compliments 
between  our  pickets  ahead  and  some  wandering 
scouts  of  Argile. 

And  yonder  below  us,  Loch  Linnhe  and  Locheil 
glanced  in  the  moonlight,  and  the  strong  towers 
of  Inverlochy  sat  like  a  scowl  on  the  fringe  of  the 
wave ! 


JOHN   SPLENDID  257 


CHAPTER   XX 

When  we  came  up  with  the  main  body  of  Mac- 
Donald's  army,  the  country,  as  I  say,  was  shining 
in  the  hght  of  the  moon,  with  only  a  camp-fire 
down  in  the  field  beside  the  castle  to  show  in  all 
the  white  world  a  sign  of  human  life.  We  had  got 
the  Campbells  in  the  rear,  barring  any  passage  to 
Badenoch  or  Lochaber ;  but  they  never  knew  it. 
A  few  of  their  scouts  came  out  across  the  fields 
and  challenged  our  pickets ;  there  was  some  ex- 
change of  musketry,  but,  as  we  found  again,  we 
were  thought  to  be  some  of  the  Lochaber  hunters 
unworthy  of  serious  engagement. 

For  the  second  time  in  so  many  days  we  tasted 
food,  a  handful  of  meal  to  the  quaich  of  water  — 
no  more  and  no  less ;  and  James  Grahame,  Mar- 
quis of  Montrose,  supped  his  brose  like  the  rest  of 
us,  with  the  knife  from  his  belt  doing  the  office  of 
a  horn-spoon. 

Some  hours  after  us  came  up  the  Camerons, 
who  had  fallen  behind,  but  fresher  and  more  eager 
for  fighting  than  our  own  company,  for  they  had 
fallen  on  a  herd  of  roe  on  the  slope  of  Sgur  an 
lolair,  and  had  supped  savagely  on  the  warm  raw 
flesh. 

"  You  might  have  brought  us  a  gigot  off  your 
take,"  Sir  Alasdair  said  to  the  leader  of  them,  Dol 

17 


258  JOHN    SPLENDID 

Ruadh.  He  was  a  short-tempered  man  of  no 
great  manners,  and  he  only  grunted  his  response. 

"  They  may  well  call  you  Camerons  of  the  soft 
mouth,"  said  Alasdair,  angrily,  "  that  would  treat 
your  comrades  so." 

"  You  left  us  to  carry  our  own  men,"  said  the 
chief,  shortly ;  "  we  left  you  to  find  your  own 
deer." 

We  were  perhaps  the  only  ones  who  slept  at  the 
mouth  of  Glen  Nevis  that  woeful  night,  and  we 
slept* because,  as  my  comrade  said,  "  What  cannot 
be  mended  may  be  well  slept  on ;  it 's  an  ease  to 
the  heart."  And  the  counsel  was  so  wise  and  our 
weariness  so  acute,  that  we  lay  on  the  bare  ground 
till  we  were  roused  to  the  call  of  a  trumpet. 

It  was  St.  Bridget's  Day,  and  Sunday  morning, 
A  myriad  bens  around  gave  mists,  as  smoke  from 
a  censer,  to  the  day.  The  Athole  pipers  high- 
brcastcdly  strutted  with  a  vain  port  up  and  down 
their  lines  and  played  incessantly.  Alasdair  laid 
out  the  clans  with  amazing  skill,  as  MTver  and  I 
were  bound  to  confess  to  ourselves;  the  horse 
(with  Montrose  himself  on  his  charger)  in  the 
centre,  the  men  of  Clanranald,  Keppoch,  Locheil, 
Glengarry,  and  Maclean,  and  the  Stewarts  of 
Appin  behind.  MacDonald  and  O'Kyan  led  the 
Irish  on  the  wings. 

In  the  plain  we  could  sec  Argilc's  forces  in  a 
somewhat  similar  order,  with  the  tartan  as  it  should 
be  in  the  midst  of  the  bataille  and  the  Lowland 
levies  on  the  flanks.  Over  the  centre  waved  the 
black  barge  of  Lome  on  a  gold  standard. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  259 

I  expressed  some  doubt  about  the  steadfastness 
of  the  Lowlandcrs,  and  M'lv^er  was  in  sad  agree- 
ment with  me. 

"  I  said  it  in  Glenaora  when  we  left,"  said  he ; 
"  and  I  say  it  again.  They  would  be  fairly  good 
stuff  against  foreign  troops ;  but  they  have  no 
suspicion  of  the  character  of  Gaelic  war.  I  'm 
sore  feared  they  '11  prove  a  poor  reed  to  lean  on. 
Why,  in  heaven's  name,  does  MacCailein  take  the 
risk  of  a  battle  in  such  an  awkward  corner?  An 
old  stager  like  Auchinbreac  should  advise  him  to 
follow  the  Kilcumin  road  and  join  forces  with  Sea- 
forth,  who  must  be  far  down  Glen  Albyn  by  now." 

As  we  were  standing  apart  thus,  up  to  us  came 
Ian  Lom,  shaking  the  brogue-money  he  got  from 
Grahame  in  his  dirty  loof     He  was  very  bitter. 

'*  I  never  earned  an  honester  penny,"  he  said, 
looking  up  almost  insolently  in  our  faces,  so  that 
it  was  a  temptation  to  give  him  a  clout  on  the 
cunning  jowl. 

"  So  Judas  thought,  too,  I  daresay,  when  he 
fingered  his  filthy  shekels,"  said  I.  "  I  thought 
no  man  from  Keppoch  would  be  skulking  aside 
here  when  his  pipers  blew  the  onset." 

"  Och  !  "  said  M'lver,  "  what  need  ye  be  talking? 
Bardachd  and  bravery  don't  very  often  go  to- 
gether." 

Ian  Lom  scowled  blackly  at  the  taunt,  but  was 
equal  to  answer  it. 

"  If  the  need  arise,"  said  he,  "  you  '11  sec  whether 
the  bard  is  brave  or  not.  There  are  plenty  to 
fight;  there's  but  one  to   make   the  song  of  the 


26o  JOHN   SPLENDID 

fight,  and  that 's  John  MacDonald  with  your 
honours'  leave." 

We  would,  like  enough,  have  been  pestered  with 
the  scamp's  presence  and  garrulity  a  good  deal 
longer;  but  Montrose  came  up  at  that  moment 
and  took  us  aside  with  a  friendly  enough  beckon 
of  his  head. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said  in  English,  "as  Cavaliers 
you  can  guess  fairly  well  already  the  issue  of 
what 's  to  happen  below  there,  and  as  Cavaliers 
who,  clansmen  or  no  clansmen  of  the  Campbell 
chief,  have  done  well  for  old  Scotland's  name 
abroad,  I  think  you  deserve  a  little  more  consider- 
ation-at  our  hands  at  this  juncture  than  common 
prisoners  of  war  can  lay  claim  to.  If  you  care 
you  can  quit  here  as  soon  as  the  onset  begins, 
abiding  of  course  by  your  compact  to  use  no  arms 
against  my  friends.  You  have  no  objection?"  he 
added,  turning  about  on  his  horse  and  crying  to 
Alasdair. 

The  Major-General  came  up  and  looked  at  us. 
"  I  suppose  they  may  go,"  said  he,  "  though,  to 
tell  my  mind  on  the  matter,  I  could  devise  a 
simpler  way  of  getting  rid  of  them.  We  have 
other  methods  in  Erin  O,  but  as  your  lordship  has 
taken  the  fancy,  they  may  go  I  daresay.  Only 
they  must  not  join  their  clan  or  take  arms  with 
them  until  this  battle  is  over.  They  must  be  on 
the  Ballachulish  road  before  we  call  the  onset." 

Montrose  flushed  at  the  ill-breeding  of  his  officer, 
and  waved  us  away  to  the  left  on  the  road  that  led 
to  Argilc  by  Loch  Liniilic  side,  and  took  us  clear 
of  the  coming  encounter. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  261 

We  were  neither  of  us  slow  to  take  advantage  of 
the  opportunity,  but  set  off  at  a  sharp  walk  at  the 
moment  that  O'Kyan  on  the  right  flank  was  slowly 
moving  in  the  direction  of  Argile's  line. 

John  broke  his  sharp  walk  so  quickly  into  a 
canter  that  I  wondered  what  he  meant.  I  ran 
close  at  his  heels,  but  I  forbore  to  ask,  and  we 
had  put  a  good  lump  of  moorland  between  us  and 
the  MacDonalds  before  he  explained. 

"  You  perhaps  wondered  what  my  hurry  was," 
he  said,  with  the  sweat  standing  in  beads  on  his 
face,  though  the  air  was  full  of  frost.  "  It  was  n't 
for  exercise,  as  you  might  guess  at  any  rate.  The 
fact  is,  we  were  within  five  minutes  of  getting  a 
wheen  Stewart  dirks  in  our  doublets,  and  if  there 
was  no  brulzie  on  foot  we  were  even  yet  as  good  as 
lost  on  Brae  Lochaber." 

"How  does  that  happen?"  I  asked.  "They 
seemed  to  let  us  away  generously  enough  and  with 
no  great  ill  will." 

"  Just  so !  But  when  Montrose  gave  us  the 
cong^,  I  happened  to  turn  an  eye  up  Glen  Nevis, 
and  I  saw  some  tardy  Stewarts  (by  their  tartan) 
come  running  down  the  road.  These  were  the 
lads  Dol  Ruadh  left  behind  last  night,  and  they 
could  scarcely  miss  in  daylight  the  corpse  we  left 
by  the  road,  and  their  clansmen  missed  in  the 
mirk.  That  was  my  notion  at  the  first  glance  I 
got  of  them,  and  when  we  ran  they  ran,  too,  and 
what  do  you  make  of  that?" 

"  What  we  should  make  of  it,"  I  said  in  alarm, 
"  is  as  good  a  pace  into  Lorn  as  we  can  ;  they  may 


262  JOHN   SPLENDID 

be  on  the  heels  of  us  now"  —  for  we  were  in  a 
little  dip  of  the  ground  where  the  force  we  had 
just  parted  so  gladly  with  were  not  to  be  seen  from. 

On  that  point  M'lver  speedily  assured  me. 

"  No,  no  !  "  he  said.  "  If  Seumas  Grahame  him- 
self were  stretched  out  yonder  instead  of  a  Glenart 
Cearnoch  of  no  great  importance  to  any  one,  Alas- 
dair  MacDonald  would  be  scarcely  zealous  fool 
enough  to  spoil  his  battle  order  to  prosecute  a 
private  feud.  Look  at  that,"  he  proceeded,  turn- 
ing round  on  a  little  knowe  he  ran  lightly  up  on 
and  I  after  him  —  "look  at  that!  the  battle's 
begun." 

We  stood  on  that  knowe  of  Brae  Lochaber,  and 
I  saw  from  thence  a  spectacle  whose  like,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  I  hav^e  never  seen  the  like  of  before 
nor  since  in  its  agony  for  any  eye  that  was  friendly 
to  Diarmaid  Clan.  I  need  not  here  set  down  the 
sorry  end  of  that  day  at  Invcrlochy.  It  has  been 
written  many  times,  though  I  harbour  no  book 
on  my  shelves  that  tells  the  story.  We  saw  Mac- 
Donald's  charge ;  we  saw  the  wings  of  Argile's 
army  —  the  rotten  Lowland  levies  —  break  off  and 
skurry  along  the  shore ;  we  saw  the  lads  of  the 
Diarmaid  tartan  hewn  down  on  the  edge  of  the 
tide  till  its  waves  ran  red ;  but  we  were  as  helpless 
as  the  rush  that  waved  at  our  feet.  Between  us 
and  our  friends  lay  the  enemy  and  our  parole  —  I 
daresay  our  parole  was  forgotten  in  that  terrible 
hour. 

John  M'lver  laid  him  down  on  the  tiiUoch  and 
clawed  with  his  nails  the  stunted  grass  that  in  wind- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  263 

blown  patches  came  through  the  snow.  None  of 
my  words  made  any  difference  on  his  anguish,  I 
was  piping  to  the  surrender  of  sorrow,  nigh  mad 
myself. 

The  horses  of  Ogilvie  — who  himself  fell  in  the 
brulzie  —  chased  the  Lowlanders  along  the  side  of 
Loch  Linnhe,  and  so  few  of  the  flying  had  the 
tartan,  that  we  had  no  great  interest  in  them,  till 
we  saw  six  men  with  their  plaiding  cast  run  un- 
observed up  the  plain,  wade  waist  deep  through 
the  Nevis,  and  come  somewhat  in  our  direction. 
We  went  down  to  join  them,  and  ran  hard  and 
fast  and  came  on  them  at  a  place  called  the  Rhu  at 
the  water  of  Crachnish. 


264  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXI 

At  last  there  was  but  one  horseman  in  chase  ot 
the  six  men  who  were  fleeing  without  a  look  behind 
them  —  a  frenzied  black-avised  trooper  on  a  short- 
legged  garron  he  rode  most  clumsily,  with  arms 
that  swung  like  wings  from  the  shoulder,  his  boots 
keeping  time  to  the  canter  with  grotesque  knock- 
ings  against  the  gaunt  and  sweating  flanks  of  his 
starved  animal.  He  rode  with  a  shout,  and  he 
rode  with  a  fool's  want  of  calculation,  for  he  had 
left  all  support  behind  him,  and  might  readily 
enough  have  been  cut  off  by  any  judicious  enemy 
in  the  rear.  Before  wc  could  hurry  down  to  join  the 
fugitives  they  observed  for  themselves  that  the  pur- 
suit had  declined  to  this  solitary  person,  so  up  they 
drew  (all  but  one  of  them),  with  dirks  or  sgcans 
drawn  to  give  him  his  welcome.  And  yet  the 
dragoon  put  no  check  on  his  horse.  The  beast, 
in  a  terror  at  the  din  of  the  battle,  was  indifferent 
to  the  check  of  its  master,  whom  it  bore  with 
thudding  hoofs  to  a  front  that  must  ccrtainlx'  have 
appalled  him.  He  was  a  person  of  some  pluck,  or 
perhaps  the  drunkenness  of  terror  lent  him  the 
illusion  of  valour;  at  least  when  he  found  a  bloody 
end  inevitable  he  made  the  best  of  the  occasion. 
Into    the    heaving   sides   of  the    brute   he   drove 


JOHN   SPLENDID  265 

desperate  spurs,  anew  he  shouted  a  scurrilous 
name  at  Clan  Campbell,  then  fired  his  pistol  as 
he  fell  upon  the  enemy. 

The  dag  failed  of  its  purpose,  but  the  breast  of 
the  horse  struck  an  elderly  man  on  the  brow  and 
threw  him  on  his  back,  so  that  one  of  the  hind 
hoofs  of  the  animal  crushed  in  his  skull  like  a 
hazel-nut. 

Who  of  that  fierce  company  brought  the  trooper 
to  his  end  we  never  knew;  but  when  M'lver  and  I 
got  down  to  the  level  he  was  dead  as  knives  could 
make  him,  and  his  horse,  more  mad  than  ever,  was 
disappearing  over  a  mossy  moor  with  a  sky-blue 
lochan  in  the  midst  of  it. 

Of  the  five  Campbells  three  were  gentlemen  — ■ 
Forbes  the  baron-bailie  of  Ardkinglas,  Neil  Camp- 
bell in  Sonachan,  Lochowside,  and  the  third  no 
other  than  Master  Gordon  the  minister,  who  was 
the  most  woe-begone  and  crestfallen  of  them  all. 
The  other  two  were  small  tacksmen  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  Inneraora  —  one  Callum  Mac- 
Iain  vie  Ruarie  vie  Allan  (who  had  a  little  want,  as 
we  say  of  a  character,  or  natural,  and  was  ever 
moist  with  tears),  and  a  Rob  Campbell  in  Auch- 
natra,  whose  real  name  was  Stewart,  but  who  had 
been  in  some  trouble  at  one  time  in  a  matter  of  a 
neighbour's  sheep  on  the  braes  of  Appin,  had  dis- 
creetly fled  that  country,  and  brought  up  a  family 
under  a  borrowed  name  in  a  country  that  kept  him 
in  order. 

We  were,  without  doubt,  in  a  most  desperate 
extremity.     If  we  had  escaped  the  immediate  peril 


266  JOHN   SPLENDID 

of  the  pursuing  troopers  of  MacDonald,  we  had  a 
longer,  wearier  hazard  before  us.  Any  one  who 
knows  the  countryside  I  am  writing  of,  or  takes  a 
glance  at  my  relative  Gordon  of  Straloch's  diagram 
or  map  of  the  same,  will  see  that  we  were  now  in 
the  very  heart  of  a  territory  hotching  (as  the  rough 
phrase  goes)  with  clans  inimical  to  the  house  of 
Argile.  Between  us  and  the  comparative  safety  of 
Bredalbane  lay  Stewarts,  MacDonalds,  Macgregors, 
and  other  families  less  known  in  history,  who  hated 
the  name  of  MacCailein  more  than  they  feared  the 
wrath  of  God.  The  sight  of  our  tartan  in  any  one 
of  their  glens  would  rouse  hell  in  every  heart  about 
us. 

Also  our  numbers  and  the  vexed  state  of  the 
times  were  against  us.  We  could  hardly  pass  for 
peaceable  drovers  at  such  a  season  of  the  }'ear ; 
we  were  going  the  wrong  airt  for  another  thing, 
and  the  fact  that  not  we  alone,  but  many  more  of 
Argile's  forces  in  retreat  were  fleeing  home  would 
be  widely  advertised  around  the  valleys  in  a  very 
few  hours  after  the  battle  had  been  fought.  For 
the  news  of  war  —  good  or  ill — passes  among  the 
glens  with  a  magic  speed.  It  runs  faster  than  the 
fiery  cross  itself — so  fast  and  inexplicable  on  any 
natural  law,  that  more  than  once  I  have  been  ready 
to  believe  it  a  witches'  premonition  more  than  a 
message  carried  on  young  men's  feet. 

"  But  all  that,"  said  Sonachan,  a  pawky,  sturdy 
little  gentleman  with  a  round,  ruddy  face  and  a 
great  store  of  genealogy  that  he  must  be  ever  dis- 
playing—  "but  all  that  makes  it  more  incumbent 


JOHN   SPLENDID  267 

on  us  to  hang  together.  It  may  easily  be  a  week 
before  we  get  into  Glenurchy ;  we  must  travel  by 
night  and  hide  by  day,  and  besides  the  heartening 
influence  of  company  there  are  sentinels  to  consider 
and  the  provision  of  our  food." 

Ardkinglas,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  fushion- 
less,  stupid  kind  of  man;  he  was  for  an  immediate 
dispersion  of  us  all,  holding  that  only  in  individ- 
uals or  in  pairs  was  it  possible  for  us  to  penetrate 
in  safety  to  real  Argile. 

"I'm  altogether  with  Sonachan,"  said  M'lver; 
"  and  I  could  mention  half  a  hundred  soldierly 
reasons  for  the  policy ;  but  it 's  enough  for  me  that 
here  are  seven  of  us,  no  more  and  no  less,  and  with 
seven  there  should  be  all  the  luck  that 's  going." 

He  caught  the  minister's  eyes  on  him  at  this, 
and  met  them  with  a  look  of  annoyance. 

"  O  yes,  I  know,  Master  Gordon,  you  gentlemen 
of  the  lawn  bands  have  no  friendliness  to  our  old 
Highland  notions.  Seven  or  six,  it 's  all  the  same 
to  you,  I  suppose,  except  in  a  question  of  merks 
to  the  stipend." 

"  You  're  a  clever  man  enough,  M'lver " 

"  Barbreck,"  corrected  my  friend,  punctiliously, 

"  Barbreck  let  it  be  then.  But  you  are  generally 
so  sensitive  to  other  folk's  thoughts  of  you  that 
your  skin  tingles  to  an  insult  no  one  dreamt  of 
paying.  I  make  no  doubt  a  great  many  of  your 
Gaelic  beliefs  are  sheer  paganism  or  Popery  or 
relics  of  the  same,  but  the  charm  of  seven  has  a 
scriptural  warrant  that  as  minister  of  the  Gospel  I 
have  some  respect  for,  even  when  twisted  into  a 


268  JOHN    SPLENDID 

portent  for  a  band  of  broken  men  in  the  extremity 
of  danger." 

We  had  to  leave  the  dead  body  of  our  friend, 
killed  by  the  horse,  on  the  hillside.  He  was  a 
Knapdale  man,  a  poor  creature,  who  was  as  well 
done,  perhaps,  with  a  world  that  had  no  great 
happiness  left  for  him,  for  his  home  had  been  put 
to  the  torch  and  his  wife  outraged  and  murdered. 
At  as  much  speed  as  we  could  command,  we 
threaded  to  the  south,  not  along  the  valleys,  but  in 
the  braes,  suffering  anew  the  rigour  of  the  frost 
and  the  snow.  By  midday  we  reached  the  shore 
of  Loch  Leven,  and  it  seemed  as  if  now  our  flight 
was  hopelessly  barred,  for  the  ferry  that  could  be 
compelled  to  take  the  army  of  MacCailein  over  the 
brackish  water  at  Ballachulish  was  scarce  likely  to 
undertake  the  conveying  back  of  seven  fugitives  of 
the  clan  that  had  come  so  high-handedly  through 
their  neighbourhood  four  days  ago.  On  this  side 
there  was  not  a  boat  in  sight;  indeed  there  was 
not  a  vestige  on  any  side  of  human  tenancy. 
Glencoe  had  taken  with  him  every  man  who  could 
carry  a  pike,  not  to  our  disadvantage  perhaps,  for 
it  left  the  less  danger  of  any  strong  attack. 

On  the  side  of  the  loch,  when  we  emerged  from 
the  hills,  there  was  a  cluster  of  whin-bushes  spread 
out  upon  a  machar  of  land  that  in  a  less  rigorous 
season  of  the  year,  by  the  feel  of  the  shoe-sole, 
must  be  velvet-piled  with  salty  grass.  It  lay  in  the 
clear,  gray  forenoon  like  a  garden  of  fairydom  to 
the  view,  the  whin-bushes  at  a  distant  glance,  float- 
ing on  billows  of  snow,  touched  at  their  lee  by  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  269 

cheering  green,  hung  to  the  windward  with  the 
silver  of  the  snow,  and  some  of  them  even  prinked 
off  with  the  gold  flower  that  gives  rise  to  the 
proverb  about  kissing  being  out  of  fashion  when 
the  whin  wants  bloom.  To  come  on  this  silent, 
peaceful,  magic  territory,  fresh  out  of  the  turmoil 
of  a  battle,  was  to  be  in  a  region  haunted,  in  the 
borderland  of  morning  dreams,  where  care  is  a 
vague  and  far-off  memory,  and  the  elements  study 
our  desires.  The  lake  spread  out  before  us  with- 
out a  ripple,  its  selvedge  at  the  shore  repeating  the 
picture  on  the  brae.  I  looked  on  it  with  a  mind 
peculiarly  calm,  rejoicing  in  its  aspect.  O  !  love 
and  the  coming  years,  thinks  I,  let  them  be  here 
or  somewhere  like  it,  not  among  the  savage  of  the 
hills,  fighting,  plotting,  contriving;  not  among 
snow-swept  mounts  and  crying  and  wailing  brooks, 
but  by  the  sedate  and  tranquil  sea  in  calm  weather. 
As  we  walked,  my  friends  with  furtive  looks  to  this 
side  and  yon,  down  to  the  shore,  I  kept  my  face 
to  the  hills  of  real  Argile,  and  my  heart  was  full  of 
love.  I  got  that  glimpse  that  comes  to  most  of  us 
(had  we  the  wit  to  comprehend  it)  of  the  future  of 
my  life.  I  beheld  in  a  wave  of  the  emotion  the 
picture  of  my  coming  years,  going  down  from  day 
to  day  very  unadventurous  and  calm,  spent  in  some 
peaceful  valley  by  a  lake,  sitting  at  no  rich-laden 
board,  but  at  bien  and  happy  viands  with  some 
neighbour  heart.  A  little  bird  of  hope  fluttered 
within  me,  so  that  I  knew  that  if  every  clan  in  that 
countryside  was  arraigned  against  me,  I  had  the 
breastplate  of  fate  on  my  breast.     "  I  shall  not  die 


270  JOHN   SPLENDID 

in  this  unfriendly  country,"  I  promised  myself; 
"  there  may  be  terror,  and  there  may  be  gloom, 
but  I  shall  watch  my  children's  children  play  upon 
the  braes  of  Shira  Glen." 

"  You  are  very  joco,"  said  John  to  me  as  I  broke 
into  a  little  laugh  of  content  with  myself. 

"  It's  the  first  time  you  ever  charged  me  with 
jocosity,  John,"  I  said;  "  I  'm  just  kind  of  happy 
thinking." 

"Yon  spectacle  behind  us  is  not  humorous  to 
my  notion,"  said  he,  "  whatever  it  may  be  to  yours. 
And  perhaps  the  laugh  may  be  on  the  other  side 
of  your  face  before  the  night  comes.  We  are  here 
in  a  spider's  web." 

"  I  cry  pardon  for  my  lightness,  John,"  I  an- 
swered ;  "  I  '11  have  time  enough  to  sorrow  over  the 
clan  of  Argile ;  but  if  you  had  the  Sight  of  your 
future,  and  it  lay  in  other  and  happier  scenes  than 
these,  would  you  not  feel  something  of  a  gaiety?  " 

He  looked  at  me  with  an  envy  in  every  feature, 
from  me  to  his  companions,  from  them  to  the 
jountry  round  about  us,  and  then  to  himself  as  to 
a  stranger  whose  career  was  revealed  in  every  rag 
of  his  clothing. 

"  So,"  said  he ;  "  you  are  the  lucky  man  to  be 
of  the  breed  of  the  elect  of  heaven,  to  get  what 
you  want  for  the  mere  desire  of  it,  and  perhaps 
without  deserve.  Here  am  I  at  my  prime  and  over 
it,  and  no  glisk  of  the  future  before  me.  I  must 
be  ever  stumbling  on,  a  carouscr  of  life  in  a  mirk 
and  sodden  lane." 

"You  cannot  know  m}'  meaning,"  I  cried. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  271 

"  I  know  it  fine,"  said  he.  "  You  get  what  you 
want  because  you  are  the  bairn  of  content.  And 
I'm  but  the  child  of  hurry  (it's  the  true  word), 
and  I  must  be  seeking  and  I  must  be  trying  to  the 
bitter  end." 

He  kicked,  as  he  walked,  at  the  knolls  of  snow 
in  his  way,  and  lashed  at  the  bushes  with  a  hazel 
wand  he  had  lifted  from  a  tree. 

"  Not  all  I  want,  perhaps,"  said  I ;  "  for  do 
you  know  that  fleeing  thus  from  the  disgrace  of 
my  countrymen,  I  could  surrender  every  sorrow 
and  every  desire  to  one  notion  about — about — ■ 
about " 

"  A  girl  of  the  middle  height,"  said  he,  "  and 
her  name  is " 

"  Do  not  give  it  an  utterance,"  I  cried.  "  I 
would  be  sorry  to  breathe  her  name  in  such  a 
degradation.  Degradation  indeed,  and  yet  if  I  had 
the  certainty  that  I  was  a  not  altogether  hopeless 
suitor  yonder,  I  would  feel  a  conqueror  greater 
than  Hector  or  Gilian-of-the-Axe." 

"  Ay,  ay,"  said  John.  "  I  would  not  wonder. 
And  I  '11  swear  that  a  man  of  your  fate  may  have 
her  if  he  wants  her.  I  '11  give  ye  my  notion  of 
wooing ;  it 's  that  with  the  woman  free  and  the 
man  with  some  style  and  boldness,  he  may  have 
whoever  he  will." 

"  I  would  be  sorry  to  think  it,"  said  I ;  "  for  that 
might  apply  to  suitors  at  home  in  Inneraora  as 
well  as  me." 

M'lver  laughed  at  the  sally,  and  "  Well,  well," 
said   he,  "  we  are  not  going  to  be  debating  the 


272  JOHN    SPLENDID 

chance  of  love  on  Leven-side,  with  days  and  nights 
of  sHnking  in  the  heather  and  the  fern  between  us 
and  our  home." 

Though  this  conversation  of  ours  may  seem  sin- 
gularly calm  and  out  of  all  harmony  with  our  cir- 
cumstances, it  is  so  only  on  paper ;  for,  in  fact,  it 
took  but  a  minute  or  two  of  our  time  as  we  walked 
down  among  those  whins  that  inspired  me  with  the 
peaceful  premonition  of  the  coming  years.  We 
were  walking,  the  seven  of  us,  not  in  a  compact 
group,  but  scattered,  and  at  the  whins  when  we 
rested  we  sat  in  ones  and  twos  behind  the  bushes, 
with  eyes  cast  anxiously  along  the  shore  for  sign 
of  any  craft  that  might  take  us  over. 

What  might  seem  odd  to  any  one  who  docs  not 
know  the  shrinking  mood  of  men  broken  with  a 
touch  of  disgrace  in  their  breaking,  was  that  for 
long  we  studiously  said  nothing  of  the  horrors  we 
had  left  behind  us.  Five  men  fleeing  from  a  disas- 
trous field  and  two  new  out  of  the  clutches  of  a 
conquering  foe,  we  were  dumb  or  discoursed  of 
affairs  very  far  removed  from  the  reflection  that 
we  were  a  clan  at  extremities. 

But  we  could  keep  up  this  silence  of  shame 
no  longer  than  our  running;  when  we  sat  among 
the  whins  on  Leven-side,  and  took  a  breath  and 
scrutinised  along  the  coast,  for  sign  of  food  or 
ferry,  we  must  be  talking  of  what  we  had  left 
behind. 

Gordon  told  the  story  with  a  pained,  constrained, 
and  halting  utterance :  of  the  surprise  of  Auchin- 
breck  when  he  heard  the  point  of  war  from  Nevis 


JOHN   SPLENDID  273 

Glen,  and  could  not  believe  that  Montrose  was  so 
near  at  hand ;  of  the  wavering  Lowland  wings,  the 
slaughter  of  the  Campbell  gentlemen. 

"  We  were  in  a  trap,"  said  he,  drawing  with  a 
stick  on  the  smooth  snow  a  diagram  of  the  situa- 
tion. "  We  were  between  brae  and  water.  I  am 
no  man  of  war,  and  my  heart  swelled  at  the  spec- 
tacle of  the  barons  cut  down  like  nettles.  And  by 
the  most  foolish  of  tactics,  surely,  a  good  many  of 
our  forces  were  on  the  other  side  of  the  loch." 

"  That  was  not  Auchinbreck's  doing,  I  '11  war- 
rant," said  M'lver;  "he  would  never  have  coun- 
selled a  division  so  fatal." 

"  Perhaps  not,"  said  the  cleric,  drily ;  "  but  what 
if  a  general  has  only  a  sort  of  savage  army  at  his 
call?     The  gentry  of  your  clan " 

"  What  about  MacCailein?  "  I  asked,  wondering 
that  there  was  no  word  of  the  chief 

"  Go  on  with  your  story,"  said  MTver,  sharply, 
to  the  cleric. 

**  The  gentry  of  your  clan,"  said  Gordon,  paying 
no  heed  to  my  query,  "  were  easy  enough  to 
guide;  but  yon  undisciplined  kerns  from  the  hills 
had  no  more  regard  for  martial  law  than  for  the 
holy  Commandments.  God  help  them  !  They 
went  their  own  gait,  away  from  the  main  body, 
plundering  and  robbing." 

"  I  would  not  just  altogether  call  it  plundering, 
nor  yet  robbing,"  said  John,  a  show  of  anno)'ance 
on  his  face. 

"  And  I  don't  think  myself,"  said  Sonachan, 
removing  himself,  as  he  spoke,  from  our  side,  and 

i8 


274  JOHN   SPLENDID 

going  to  join  the  three  others,  who  sat  apart  from 
us  a  few  yards,  "  that  it 's  a  gentleman's  way  of 
s[)eaking  of  the  doings  of  other  gentlemen  of  the 
same  name  and  tartan  as  ourselves." 

"  Ay,  ay,"  said  the  minister,  looking  from  one 
to  the  other  of  us,  his  shaven  jowl  with  lines  of  a 
most  annoying  pity  on  it  —  "  ay,  ay,"  said  he,  "  it 
would  be  pleasing  you  better,  no  doubt,  to  hint  at 
no  vice  or  folly  in  your  army;  that's  the  High- 
lands for  you  !  I  'm  no  Highlander,  thank  God, 
or  at  least  with  the  savage  long  out  of  me  ;  for  I  'm 
of  an  honest  and  orderl}'  Lowland  stock,  and  my 
trade  's  the  Gospel  and  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
you  '11  get  from  Alexander  Gordon,  Master  of  the 
Arts,  if  you  had  your  black  joctilegs  at  his  neck 
for  it." 

He  rose  up,  pursing  his  face,  panting  at  the  nos- 
tril, very  crouse  and  defiant  in  every  way. 

"  Oh,  you  may  just  sit  you  down,"  said  M'lver, 
sharply,  to  him.  "  You  can  surely  give  us  truth 
without  stamping  it  down  our  throats  with  your 
boots,  that  are  not,  I  've  noticed,  of  the  smallest 
size." 

"  I  know  you,  sir,  from  boot  to  bonnet,"  said 
Gordon. 

"  You  're  well  off  in  your  acquaintance,"  said 
M'lver,  jocularly ;   "  I  wish  I  kent  so  good  a  man." 

"  P'rom  boot  to  bonnet,"  said  Gordon,  in  no 
whit  abashed  by  the  irony.  "  Man,  do  you  know," 
he  went  on,  "  there  's  a  time  comes  to  me  now 
when,  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  can  see  to  one's  in- 
nermost as  through   a  lozen.      I  shudder,  some- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  275 

times,  at  the  gift.  For  there's  the  fair  face,  and 
there  's  the  smug  and  smiHng  hp,  and  there  's  the 
flattery  at  the  tongue,  and  below  that  masked  front 
is  Beelzebub  himself,  meaning  well  sometimes  — • 
perhaps  always  —  but  by  his  fall  a  traitor  first  and 
last." 

"  God  !  "  cried  M'lver,  with  a  very  ugly  face, 
"  that  sounds  awkwardly  like  a  roundabout  way  of 
giving  me  a  bad  character." 

"  I  said,  sir,"  answered  Gordon,  "  that  poor 
Beelzebub  does  not  sometimes  ken  his  own  trade. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  in  your  heart  you  are  touched 
to  the  finest  by  love  of  your  fellows." 

"  And  that 's  the  truth  —  when  they  are  not 
clerics,"  cried  John. 

"  Touched  to  the  finest,  and  set  in  a  glow,  too, 
by  a  manly  and  unselfish  act,  and  eager  to  go 
through  this  world  on  pleasant  footings  with  your- 
self and  all  else." 

"  Come,  come,"  I  cried ;  "  I  know  my  friend 
well.  Master  Gordon.  We  are  not  all  that  we 
might  be ;  but  I  'm  grateful  for  the  luck  that 
brought  me  so  good  a  friend  as  John  M'lver." 

"  I  never  cried  down  his  credit,"  said  the  minis- 
ter, simply. 

"  Your  age  gives  you  full  liberty,"  said  John. 
"  I  would  never  lift  a  hand." 

"  The  lifting  of  your  hand,"  said  the  cleric,  with 
a  flashing  eye,  "  is  the  last  issue  I  would  take 
thought  of.  I  can  hold  my  own.  You  are  a  fair 
and  shining  vessel  (of  a  kind),  but  Beelzebub  's  at 
your  heart.     They  tell  me  that  people  like  you ; 


2/6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

this  gentleman  of  Elrigmore  claims  you  for  his 
comrade.  Well,  well,  so  let  it  be !  It  but  shows 
anew  the  charm  of  the  glittering  exterior:  they 
like  you  for  your  weaknesses  and  not  for  your 
strength.  Do  you  know  anything  of  what  they 
call  duty?  " 

"  I  have  starved  to  the  bone  in  Laaland  without 
complaint,  stood  six  weeks  on  watch  in  Stralsung's 
Franken  gate,  eating  my  meals  at  my  post,  and 
John  M'lver  never  turned  skirts  on  an  enemy." 

"  Very  good,  sir,  very  good,"  said  the  minister ; 
"  but  duty  is  most  ill  to  do  when  it  is  to  be  done 
in  love  and  not  in  hate." 

"Damn  all  schooling!"  cried  John.  "You're 
off  in  the  depths  of  it  again,  and  I  cannot  be  after 
you.     Duty  is  duty  in  love  or  hate,  is  it  not?  " 

"  It  would  take  two  or  three  sessions  of  St. 
Andrews  to  show  you  that  it  makes  a  great  differ 
whether  it  is  done  in  love  or  hate.  You  do  your 
duty  by  your  enemy  well  enough,  no  doubt  —  a 
barbarian  of  the  blackest  will  do  no  less  —  but 
it  takes  the  better  man  to  do  his  duty  sternly 
by  those  he  loves  and  by  himself  above  all. 
Argile " 

"Yes,"  cried  I,  "what  about  Argile?" 

The  minister  paid  no  heed  to  my  question. 

"  Argile,"  said  he,  "  has  been  far  too  long  flat- 
tered by  you  and  your  like,  M'lver." 

"  Barbrcck,"  put  in  my  comrade. 

"  Barbreck  be  it  then.  A  man  in  his  position 
thus  never  learns  the  truth.  He  sees  around  him 
but   plausible    faces  and  the  truth  at  a  cowardly 


JOHN   SPLENDID  277 

compromise.  That 's  the  sorrow  of  your  High- 
lands ;  it  will  be  the  black  curse  of  your  chiefs  in 
the  day  to  come.  As  for  me,  I  'm  for  duty  first 
and  last  —  even  if  it  demands  me  to  put  a  rope  at 
my  brother's  neck  or  my  hand  in  the  fire." 

"  Maybe  you  are,  maybe  you  are,"  said  John, 
"  and  it's  very  fine  of  you;  and  I'm  not  denying 
but  I  can  fancy  some  admirable  quality  in  the 
character.  But  if  I  'm  no  great  hand  at  the  duty, 
I  can  swear  to  the  love." 

"  It 's  a  word  I  hate  to  hear  men  using,"  said  I. 

The  minister  relaxed  to  a  smile  at  John's  amia- 
bility, and  John  smiled  on  me. 

"  It 's  a  woman's  word,  I  daresay,  Colin,"  said  he  ; 
"  but  there  's  no  man,  I  '11  swear,  turning  it  over 
more  often  in  his  mind  than  yourself." 

Where  we  lay,  the  Pap  of  Glencoe  —  Sgor-na- 
ciche,  as  they  call  it  in  the  Gaelic  —  loomed  across 
Loch  Leven  in  wisps  of  wind-blown  gray.  Long- 
beaked  birds  came  to  the  sand  and  piped  a  sharp 
and  anxious  note,  or  chattered  like  children.  The 
sea-banks  floated  on  the  water,  rising  and  dipping 
to  every  wave ;  it  might  well  be  a  dream  we  were 
in  on  the  borderland  of  sleep  at  morning. 

"What  about  Argile?  "  I  asked  again. 

The  minister  said  never  a  word.  John  Splendid 
rose  to  his  feet,  shook  the  last  of  his  annoyance 
from  him,  and  cast  an  ardent  glance  to  those  re- 
mote hills  of  Lorn. 

"  God's  grandeur,"  said  he,  turning  to  the  Gaelic 
it  was  proper  to  use  but  sparingly  before  a  Saxon, 
"Behold  the  unfriendliness  of  those  terrible  moun- 


278  JOHN   SPLENDID 

tains  and  ravines  !  I  am  Gaelic  to  the  core ;  but 
give  me  in  this  mood  of  mine  the  flat  south  soil 
and  the  ultimate  dip  of  the  sky  round  a  bannock 
of  country.  Oh,  I  wish  I  was  where  Aora  runs ! 
I  wish  I  saw  the  highway  of  Loch  Finnc  that  leads 
down  the  slope  of  the  sea  where  the  towns  pack 
close  together  and  fires  are  warm  !  "  He  went  on 
and  sang  a  song  of  the  low  country,  its  multitude 
of  cattle,  its  friendly  hearths,  its  frequented  walks 
of  lovers  in  the  dusk  and  in  the  spring. 

Sonachan  and  Ardkinglas  and  the  tacksmen 
came  over  to  listen,  and  the  man  with  the  want 
began  to  weep  with  a  child's  surrender. 

"And  what  about  Argile?"  said  I,  when  the 
humming  ceased. 

"  You  are  very  keen  on  that  bit,  lad,"  said  the 
baron-bailie,  smiling  spitefully  with  thin  hard  lips 
that  revealed  his  teeth  gleaming  white  and  square 
against  the  dusk  of  his  face.  "  You  are  very  keen 
on  that  bit ;  you  might  be  waiting  for  the  rest  of 
the  minister's  story." 

"  Oh,"  I  said,  "  I  did  not  think  there  was  any 
more  of  the  minister's  tale  to  come.  I  crave  his 
pardon." 

"  I  think,  too,  I  have  not  much  more  of  a  story 
to  tell,"  said  the  minister,  stiffly. 

"And  I  think,"  said  M'lvcr,  in  a  sudden  hurry 
to  be  off,  "  that  we  might  be  moving  from  here. 
The  head  of  the  loch  is  the  only  way  for  us  if  \vc 
are  to  be  off  this  unwholesome  countryside  by  the 
mouth  of  the  night." 

It  is  likely  we  would  have  taken  him  at  his  word, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  279 

and  have  risen  and  gone  on  his  way  to  the  east, 
where  the  narrowing  of  the  loch  showed  that  it 
was  close  on  its  conclusion ;  but  the  Stewart  took 
from  his  dorlacJi  or  knapsack  some  viands  that 
gave  a  frantic  edge  to  our  appetite  and  compelled 
us  to  stay  and  eat. 

The  day  was  drawing  to  its  close,  the  sun,  fall- 
ing behind  us,  was  pillowed  on  clouds  of  a  rich 
crimson.  For  the  first  time,  we  noticed  the  signs 
of  the  relaxation  of  the  austere  season  in  the  return 
of  bird  and  beast  to  their  familiar  haunts.  As  the 
sun  dipped,  the  birds  came  out  to  the  brae  side  to 
catch  his  last  ray  as  they  ever  love  to  do.  Whaups 
rose  off  the  sand,  and  following  the  gleam  upon 
the  braes,  ascended  from  slope  to  slope,  and  the 
plover  followed,  too,  dipping  his  feet  in  the  golden 
tide  receding.  On  little  fir-patches  mounted 
numerous  coillcacJi  dJudbJi  —  blackcock  of  sheeny 
feather,  and  the  owls  began  to  hoot  in  the  wood 
beyond. 


28o  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXn 

We  had  eaten  to  the  last  crumb,  and  were  ready 
to  be  going  when  again  I  asked  Gordon  what  had 
come  over  Argile. 

"  I  '11  tell  you  that,"  said  he,  bitterly ;  but  as  he 
began,  some  wildfowl  rose  in  a  startled  flight  to 
our  right  and  whirred  across  the  sky. 

"There's  some  one  coming,"  said  MTver,  "let 
us  keep  close  together." 

From  where  the  wildfowl  rose,  the  Dame  Dubh, 
as  we  called  the  old  woman  of  Carnus,  came  in  our 
direction,  half-running,  half-walking  through  the 
snow.  She  spied  us  while  she  was  yet  a  great  way 
off,  stopped  a  second  as  one  struck  with  an  arrow, 
then  continued  her  progress  more  eagerly  than 
ever,  with  high-piped  cries  and  taunts  at  us. 

"  O  cowards  !  "  she  cried  ;  "  do  not  face  Argile, 
or  the  glens  }'ou  belong  to.  Cowards,  cowards. 
Lowland  women,  Glencoc  's  full  of  laughter  at  your 
disgrace  !  " 

"  Royal 's  my  race,  I  '11  not  be  laughed  at,"  cried 
Stewart. 

"  They  cannot  know  of  it  already  in  Glencoe," 
said  MTver,  appalled. 

"  Know  it,"  said  the  crone,  drawing  nearer  and 
with   still   more  frenzy,  "  Glencoe   has  songs  on  it 


JOHN   SPLENDID  281 

already.  The  stench  from  Invcrlochy 's  in  the  air; 
it 's  a  mock  in  Benderloch  and  Ardgour,  it 's  a 
nightmare  in  Glenurchy,  and  the  women  are  keen- 
ing on  the  slopes  of  Cladich.  Cowards,  cowards, 
little  men,  cowards  !  all  the  curses  of  Conan  on 
you  and  the  black  rocks ;  die  from  home,  and  Hell 
itself  reject  you." 

We  stood  in  front  of  her  in  a  group,  slack  at  the 
arms  and  shoulders,  bent  a  little  at  the  head, 
affronted  for  the  first  time  with  the  full  shame  of 
our  disaster.  All  my  bright  portents  of  the  future 
seemed,  as  they  flashed  again  before  me,  muddy  in 
the  hue,  an  unfaithful  man's  remembrance  of  his 
sins  when  they  come  before  him  at  the  bedside  of 
his  wife  ;  the  evasions  of  my  friends  revealed  them- 
selves what  they  were  indeed,  the  shutting  of  the 
eyes  against  shame. 

The  woman's  meaning  Master  Gordon  could  only 
guess  at,  and  he  faced  her  composedly. 

"  You  are  far  off  your  road,"  he  said  to  her 
mildly,  but  she   paid   him   no   heed. 

"  You  have  a  bad  tongue,  mother,"  said   MTver. 

She  turned  and  spat  on  his  vest,  and  on  him 
anew  she  poured   her  condemnation. 

"  Yo?i,  indeed,  the  gentleman  with  an  account  to 
pay,  the  hero,  the  avenger  !  I  wish  my  teeth  had 
found  your  neck  at  the  head  of  Aora  Glen."  She 
stood  in  the  half  night,  foaming  ovcr-with  hate  and 
evil  words,  her  taunts  stinging  like  asps. 

"  Take  off  the  tartan,  ladies  !  "  she  screamed  ; 
"  off  with  men's  apparel  and  on  with  the  short 
gown." 


282  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Her  cries  rang  so  over  the  land  that  she  was  a 
danger  bruiting  our  presence  to  the  whole  neigh- 
bourhood, and  it  was  in  a  common  panic  we  ran 
with  one  accord  from  her  in  the  direction  of  the 
loch-head.  The  man  with  the  want  took  up  the 
rear,  whimpering  as  he  ran,  feeling  again,  it  might 
be,  a  child  fleeing  from  maternal  chastisement ;  the 
rest  of  us  went  silently,  all  but  Stewart,  who  was  a 
cocky  little  man  with  a  large  bonnet  pulled  down 
on  the  back  of  his  head  like  a  morion,  to  hide  the 
absence  of  ears  that  had  been  cut  off  by  the  law 
for  some  of  his  Appin  adventures.  He  was  a  per- 
son who  never  saw  in  most  of  a  day's  transactions 
aught  but  the  humour  of  them,  and  as  we  ran  from 
this  shrieking  beldame  of  Carnus,  he  was  choking 
with  laughter  at  the  ploy. 

"  Royal 's  my  race,"  said  he  at  the  first  ease  to 
our  running  —  "Royal's  my  race,  and  I  never 
thought  to  run  twice  in  one  day  from  an  enemy. 
Stop  your  greeting,  Galium,  and  not  be  vexing  our 
friends  the  gentlemen." 

"  What  a  fury  !  "  said  Master  Gordon.  "  And 
that 's  the  lady  of  omens  !  What  about  her  blessing 
now?  " 

"Ay,  and  what  about  her  prophecies?"  asked 
M'lver,  sharply.  "  She  was  not  so  far  wrong, 
I 'm  thinking,  about  the  risks  of  Inverlochy;  the 
heather's  above  the  gall,   indeed." 

"  But  at  any  rate,"  said  I,  "  MacGailcin's  head  is 
not  on  a  pike." 

"  You  must  be  always  on  the  old  key,"  cried 
MTver,  angrily.     "  Oh  man,  man,  but  }'ou  're  sore 


JOHN   SPLENDID  283 

in  want  of  tact."  His  face  was  throbbing  and 
hoved.  "Here's  halfa-dozen  men,"  said  he, 
"  with  plenty  to  occupy  their  wits  with  what 's  to 
be  done  and  what 's  to  happen  them  before  they 
win  home,  and  all  your  talk  is  on  a  most  vexatious 
trifle.  Have  you  found  me,  a  cousin  of  the  Mar- 
quis, anxious  to  query  our  friends  here  about  the  ins 
and  outs  of  the  engagement?  It's  enough  for  me 
that  the  heather 's  above  the  gall.  I  saw  this 
dreary  morning  the  sorrow  of  my  life,  and  I  'm  in 
no  hurry  to  add  to  it  by  the  value  of  a  single  tear." 

Sonachan  was  quite  as  bitter.  "  I  don't  think," 
said  he,  "  that  it  matters  very  much  to  you,  sir, 
what  Argile  may  have  done  or  may  not  have  done  ; 
you  should  be  glad  of  your  luck  (if  luck  it  was  and 
no  design),  that  kept  you  clear  of  the  trouble 
altogether."  And  again  he  plunged  ahead  of  us 
with  Ardkinglas,  to  avoid  my  retort  to  an  imper- 
tinence that,  coming  from  a  younger  man,  would 
have  more  seriously  angered  me. 

The  minister  by  now  had  recovered  his  wind, 
and  was  in  another  of  his  sermon  moods,  with  this 
rufifling  at  MacCailein's  name  as  his  text. 

"  I  think  I  can  comprehend,"  said  he,  "  all  this 
unwillingness  to  talk  about  my  lord  of  Argile's 
part  in  the  disaster  of  to-day ;  no  Gael  though  I 
am,  I'm  loath  myself  to  talk  about  a  bad  black 
business,  but  that's  because  I  love  my  master  — 
for  master  he  is  in  scholarship,  in  gifts,  in  every 
attribute  and  intention  of  the  Christian  soldier. 
It  is  for  a  different  reason,  I  'm  afraid,  that  our 
friend  Barbreck  shufiles." 


284  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  Barbreck  never  shuffles,"  said  John,  stiffly. 
"  If  he  did  in  this  matter  it  would  be  for  as  true  an 
affection  for  his  chief  as  any  lalland  cleric  ever  felt 
for  his  patron." 

"  And  yet,  sir,  you  shuffle  for  another  reason, 
too.  You  do  not  want  to  give  your  ridiculous 
Highland  pride  the  shock  of  hearing  that  }^our 
chief  left  in  a  galley  before  the  battle  he  lost  had 
well   begun." 

A  curious  cry  came  from  M'lver's  lips.  He 
lifted  his  face,  lined  with  sudden  shadows,  to  the 
stars  that  now  were  lighting  to  the  east,  and  I 
heard  his  teeth  grind. 

"  So  that 's  the  bitter  end  of  it !  "  said  I  to 
myself,  stunned  by  this  pitiful  conclusion.  My 
mind  groped  back  on  the  events  of  the  whole  wae- 
ful  winter.  I  saw  Argile  again  at  peace  among  his 
own  people  ;  I  heard  anew  his  clerkly  but  waver- 
ing sentiment  on  the  trade  of  the  sword;  I  sat  by 
him  in  the  mouth  of  Glen  Noe,  and  the  song  and 
the  guess  went  round  the  fire.  But  the  picture 
that  came  to  me  first  and  stayed  with  me  last  was 
Argile  standing  in  his  chamber  in  the  Castle  of 
Inneraora,  the  pallor  of  the  study  on  his  face,  and 
his  little  Archie  with  his  gold  hair  and  the  night- 
gown running  out  and  clasping  him  about  the 
knees. 

We  struggled  through  tlic  night,  weary  men,  hun- 
gry men.  Loch  Levenhcad  may  be  bonny  b}- 
day,  but  at  night  it  is  far  from  friendly  to  the 
unaccustomed  wanderer.  Swampy  meadows  frozen 
to   the  hard    bone,    and   uncountable    burns,    and 


JOHN    SPLENDID  285 

weary  ascents,  and  alarming  dips  lie  there  at  the 
foot  of  the  great  forest  of  Mamore.  And  to  us, 
poor  fugitives,  even  these  were  less  cruel  than  the 
thickets  at  the  very  head  where  the  river  brawled 
into  the  loch  with  a  sullen  surrender  of  its  moun- 
tain independence. 

About  seven  or  eight  o'clock  we  got  safely  over 
a  ford  and  into  the  hilly  country  that  lies  tumbled 
to  the  north  of  Glencoe.  Before  us  lay  the  choice 
of  two  routes,  either  of  them  leading  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Glenurchy;  but  both  of  them  hemmed  in 
by  the  most  inevitable  risks,  especially  as  but  one 
of  all  our  party  was  familiar  (and  that  one  but 
middling  well)  with  the  countryside.  "  The  choice 
of  a  cross-road  at  night  in  a  foreign  land  is  tall 
John's  pick  of  the  farmer's  daughters,"  as  our 
homely  proverb  has  it ;  you  never  know  what  you 
have  till  the  morn's  morning.  And  our  picking 
was  bad  indeed,  for  instead  of  taking  what  we 
learned  again  was  a  drove-road  through  to  Tynree, 
we  stood  more  to  the  right  and  plunged  into  what, 
after  all,  turned  out  to  be  nothing  better  than  a  cor- 
rie  among  the  hills.  It  brought  us  up  a  most  steep 
hillside,  and  landed  us  two  hours'  walk  later  far  too 
much  in  the  heart  and  midst  of  Glencoe  to  be  for 
our  comfort.  From  the  hillside  we  emerged  upon, 
the  valley  lay  revealed,  a  great  hack  among  the 
mountains. 


286  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

Of  the  seven  of  us,  Stewart  was  the  only  one  with 
a  notion  of  the  lie  of  the  country.  He  had  bought 
cattle  in  the  glen,  and  he  had  borrowed  (as  we 
may  be  putting  it)  in  the  same  place,  and  a  man 
with  the  gifts  of  observation  and  memory,  who  has 
had  to  guess  his  way  at  night  among  foreign  clans 
and  hills  with  a  drove  of  unwilling  and  mourning 
cattle  before  him,  has  many  a  feature  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood stamped  upon  his  mind.  Stewart's  idea 
was  that  to-night  we  might  cross  Glencoe,  dive 
into  one  of  the  passes  that  run  between  the  moun- 
tains called  the  Big  and  Little  Herdsmen,  or  be- 
tween the  Little  Herd  and  Ben  Fhada,  into  the 
foot  of  the  forest  of  Dalness,  then  by  the  corries 
through  the  Black  Mount  of  Brcdalbane  to  Glen- 
urchy.  Once  on  the  Brig  of  Urchy,  we  were  as 
safe,  in  a  manner,  as  on  the  shores  of  Loch  Finne. 
On  Gordon's  map  this  looks  a  very  simple  jour- 
ney, that  a  vigorous  mountaineer  could  accom- 
plish without  fatigue  in  a  couple  of  days  if  he 
knew  the  drove-roads ;  but  it  was  a  wicked  season 
for  such  an  enterprise,  and  if  the  Dame  Dubh's 
tale  was  right  (as  well  enough  it  might  be,  for  the 
news  of  Argile's  fall  would  be  round  the  world  in 
a  rumour  of  wind),  every  clan  among  these  valleys 
and  hills  would    be   on  the  hunting-road  to  cut 


JOHN   SPLENDID  287 

down  broken  men  seeking  their  way  back  to  the 
country  of  MacCailein  Mor.  Above  all  was  it  a 
hard  task  for  men  who  had  been  starving  on  a 
half-meal  dram  mock  for  two  or  three  days.  I 
myself  felt  the  hunger  gnawing  at  my  inside  like 
a  restless  red-hot  conscience.  My  muscles  were 
like  iron,  and  with  a  footman's  feeding  could  have 
walked  to  Inneraora  without  more  than  two  or 
three  hours'  sleep  at  a  time;  but  my  weakness 
for  food  was  so  great  that  the  prospect  before 
me  was  appalling. 

It  appalled,  indeed,  the  whole  of  us.  Fancy  us 
on  barren  hills,  unable  to  venture  into  the  hamlets 
or  townships  where  we  had  brought  torch  and 
pike  a  few  days  before  ;  unable  to  borrow  or  to 
buy,  hazarding  no  step  of  the  foot  without  a  look 
first  to  this  side  and  then  to  yon,  lest  enemies 
should  be  up  against  us.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  very 
soon  we  had  the  slouch  of  the  gangrel  and  the 
cunning  aspect  of  the  thief  ?  But  there  's  some- 
thing in  gentle  blood  that  always  comes  out  on 
such  an  occasion.  The  baron-bailie  and  Neil 
Campbell,  and  even  the  minister,  made  no  ado 
about  their  hunger,  though  they  were  suffering 
keenly  from  it;  only  the  two  tacksmen  kept  up 
a  ceaseless  grumbling. 

M'lver  kept  a  hunter's  ear  and  eye  alert  at 
every  step  of  our  progress.  He  had  a  hope 
that  the  white  hares,  whose  footprints  sometimes 
showed  among  the  snow,  might  run,  as  I  have 
seen  them  do  at  night,  within  reach  of  a  cudgel ; 
he  kept  a  constant  search  for  badger-hamlets,  for 


288  JOHN   SPLENDID 

he  would  have  dug  from  his  sleep  that  glutton- 
ous fat-haunched  rascal  who  gorges  himself  in 
his  own  yellow  moon-time  of  harvest.  The  hare 
nor  badger  fell  in  our  way. 

The  moon  was  up,  but  a  veil  of  gray  cloud  over- 
spread the  heavens  and  a  frosty  haze  obscured  the 
country.  A  clear  cold  hint  at  an  odour  of  spring 
was  already  in  the  air,  perhaps  the  first  rumour  the 
bush  gets  that  the  sap  must  rise.  Out  of  the  haze 
now  and  then,  as  we  descended  to  the  valley,  there 
would  come  the  peculiar  cry  of  the  red-deer,  or 
the  flafif  of  a  wing,  or  the  bleat  of  a  goat.  It  was 
maddening  to  be  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  meal 
that  roe,  or  bird,  or  goat  would  offer,  and  yet  be 
unable  to  reach  it. 

Thus  we  were  stumbling  on,  very  weary,  very 
hungry,  the  man  with  the  want  in  a  constant  wail, 
and  Sonachan  lamenting  for  suppers  he  had  been 
saucy  over  in  days  of  rowth  and  plenty,  when  a 
light  oozed  out  of  the  gray-dark  ahead  of  us,  in 
the  last  place  in  the  world  one  would  look  for 
any  such  sign  of  humanity. 

We  stopped  on  the  moment,  and  John  Splendid 
went  ahead  to  see  what  lay  in  the  way.  He  was 
gone  but  a  little  when  he  came  back  with  a  hearty 
accent  to  tell  us  that  luck  for  once  was  ours. 

"  There 's  a  house  yonder,"  said  he,  talking 
English  for  the  benefit  of  the  cleric ;  "  it  has  a 
roaring  fire  and  every  sign  of  comfort,  and  it's 
my  belief  there 's  no  one  at  home  within  but  a 
woman  and  a  few  bairns.  The  odd  thing  is  that 
as  I  get  a  look  of  the  woman  between  the  door- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  289 

post  and  the  wall,  she  sits  with  her  back  to  the 
cruisie-Hght,  patching  clothes  and  crooning  away 
at  a  dirge  that 's  broken  by  her  tears.  If  it  had 
been  last  week,  and  our  little  adventures  in  Glencoe 
had  brought  us  so  far  up  this  side  of  the  glen,  I 
might  have  thought  she  had  suffered  something 
at  our  hands.  But  we  were  never  near  this  tack- 
house  this  week,  so  the  housewife's  sorrow,  what- 
ever it  is,  can  scarcely  be  at  our  door.  Anyway," 
he  went  on,  "  here  are  seven  cold  men,  and  weary 
men  and  hungry  men  too  (and  that 's  the  worst  of 
it),  and  I  'm  going  to  have  supper  and  a  seat,  if 
it 's  the  last  in  the  world." 

"  I  hope  there  's  going  to  be  no  robbery  about 
the  affair,"  said  the  minister,  in  an  apparent  dread 
of  rough  theft  and  maybe  worse. 

M'lver's  voice  had  a  sneer  in  every  word  of  it 
when  he  answered  in  a  very  affected  tongue  of 
English  he  was  used  to  assume  when  he  wished 
to  be  at  his  best  before  a  Saxon. 

"  Is  it  the  logic  of  your  school,"  he  asked, 
"that  what's  the  right  conduct  of  war  when  we 
are  in  regiments  is  robbery  when  we  are  but 
seven  broken  men?  I  'm  trying  to  mind  that  you 
found  fault  with  us  for  helping  ourselves  in  this 
same  Glencoe  last  week,  and  refused  to  eat  Cor- 
ryoick's  beef  in  Appin,  and  I  cannot  just  recall 
the  circumstance.  Are  we  not,  think  ye,  just  as 
much  at  war  with  Glencoe  now  as  then?  And 
have  seven  starving  men  not  an  even  better  right, 
before  God,  to  forage  for  themselves  than  has  an 
army?  " 

19 


290  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"There's  a  difference,"  said  the  minister,  stiffly. 
"  We  were  then  legitimate  troops  of  war,  fighting 
for  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  under  a 
noble  lord  with  Letters.  It  was  the  Almighty's 
cause,  and " 

"Was  it,  indeed?"  said  John  Splendid.  "And 
was  Himself  on  the  other  side  of  Loch  Leven 
when  His  tulzie  was  on?" 

"  Scoffer !  "  cried  Gordon,  and  M'lver  said  no 
more,  but  led  us  through  the  dark  to  the  house 
whose  light  so  cheerfully  smiled  before  us. 

The  house,  when  we  came  to  it,  proved  a  trig 
little  edifice  of  far  greater  comfort  than  most  of  the 
common  houses  of  the  Highlands —  not  a  dry- 
stone  bigging  but  a  rubble  tenement,  very  snugly 
thacked  and  windowed,  and  having  a  piece  of 
kail-plot  at  its  rear.  It  was  perched  well  up  on 
the  brae,  and  its  light  at  evening  must  have 
gleamed  like  a  friendly  star  far  up  the  glen,  that 
needs  every  touch  of  brightness  to  mitigate  its 
gloom.  As  we  crept  close  up  to  it  in  the  snow, 
we  could  hear  the  crooning  John  Splendid  had 
told  us  of,  a  most  doleful  sound  in  a  land  of 
darkness  and  strangers. 

"  Give  a  rap,  and  when  she  answers  the  door  we 
can  tell  our  needs  peaceably,"  said  the  minister. 

"  I  'm  not  caring  about  rapping,  and  I  'm  not 
caring  about  entering  at  all  now,"  said  MTver, 
turning  about  with  some  uneasiness.  "  I  wish 
we  had  fallen  on  a  more  cheery  dwelling,  even  if 
it  were  to  be  coerced  with  club  and  pistol.  A 
prickle 's  at  my  skin  that  tells  me  here  is  dool, 
and  I  can  smell  mort-cloth." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  291 

Sonachan  gave  a  grunt,  and  thumped  loudly  on 
the  fir  boards.  A  silence  that  was  like  a  swound 
fell  on  the  instant,  and  the  light  within  went  out  at 
a  puft".  For  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  our  notion 
of  occupancy  and  light  and  lament  had  been  a 
delusion,  for  now  the  grave  itself  was  no  more 
desolate  and  still. 

"  I  think  we  might  be  going,"  said  I  in  a  whis- 
per, my  heart  thud-thudding  at  my  vest,  my  mind 
sharing  some  of  John  Splendid's  apprehension 
that  we  were  intruders  on  some  profound  grief. 
And  yet  my  hunger  was  a  furious  thing  that 
belched  red-hot  at  my  stomach. 

"  Royal 's  my  race  !  "  said  Stewart.  "  I  '11  be 
kept  tirling  at  no  door-pin  in  the  Highlands, — 
let  us  drive  in  the  bar." 

"What  does  he  say?"  asked  the  cleric,  and  I 
gave  him  the  English  of  it. 

"  You  '11  drive  no  doors  in  here,"  said  he,  firmly, 
to  Stewart.  "  We  can  but  give  another  knock  and 
see  what  comes  of  it.     Knock  you,  M'lver." 

"  Barbreck." 

"  Barbreck  be  it  then." 

"  I  would  sooner  go  to  the  glen  foot,  and  risk 
all,"  said  John. 

Sonachan  grunted  again  ;  out  he  drew  his  dirk, 
and  he  rapped  with  the  hilt  of  it  loud  and  long  at 
the  door.  A  crying  of  children  rose  within,  and, 
behold,  I  was  a  child  again  !  I  was  a  child  again 
in  Shira  Glen,  alone  in  a  little  chamber  with  a  win- 
dow uncurtained  and  unshuttered,  yawning  red- 
mouthed  to  the  outer  night.     My  back  was  almost 


292  JOHN   SPLENDID 

ev^er  to  the  window,  whose  panes  reflected  a  peat- 
fire  and  a  face  as  long  as  a  fiddle,  and  eyes  that 
shone  like  coal ;  and  though  I  looked  little  at  the 
window  yawning  to  the  wood,  I  felt  that  it  never 
wanted  some  curious  spy  outside,  some  one  girning 
or  smiling  in  at  me  and  my  book.  I  must  look 
round,  or  I  must  put  a  hand  on  my. shoulder  to 
make  sure  no  other  hand  was  there,  —  then  the 
Terror  that  drives  the  black  blood  from  the  heart 
through  all  the  being,  and  a  boy  unbuckling  his 
kilt  with  fevered  fingers  and  leaping  with  frantic 
sobs  to  bed  !  One  night  when  the  black  blood  of 
the  Terror  still  coursed  through  me,  though  I  was 
dovering  over  to  sleep,  there  came  a  knocking  at 
the  door,  a  knock  commanding,  a  knock  never 
explained.  It  brought  me  to  my  knees  with  a 
horror  that  almost  choked  me  at  the  throat,  a  cold 
dew  in  the  very  palms  of  the  hands.  I  dare  not 
ask  who  rapped  for  fear  I  should  have  an  answer 
that  comes  some  day  or  other  to  every  child  of  my 
race,  —  an  answer  no  one  told  me  of,  an  answer 
that  then  I  guessed. 

All  this  flashed  through  my  mind  when  the 
children's  crying  rose  in  the  dark  interior  —  that 
cry  of  children  old  and  young  as  they  go  through 
the  mysteries  of  life  and  the  alleyways  of  death. 

The  woman  soothed  her  children  audibl}',  then 
called   out,  asking  what  we  wanted. 

"  I  'm  a  man  from  Appin,"  cried  out  Stewart, 
with  great  promptness  and  cunning,  "  and  I  have  a 
friend  or  two  with  me.  I  was  looking  for  the 
house  of  Kilinchean,  where  a  cousin  of  mine  —  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  293 

fine  spinner  and  knitter,  but  thrawn  in  the  temper 
—  is  married  on  the  tenant,  and  we  lost  our  way. 
We  're  cold  and  we  're  tired,  and  we  're  hungry, 
and-^" 

"  Step  in,"  said  the  woman,  lifting  back  the  door. 
"  You  are  many  miles  from  Kilinchean,  and  I  know 
Appin  Mary  very  well." 

But  three  of  us  entered,  Stewart,  M'lver,  and 
myself,  the  others,  on  a  sudden  inspiration,  prefer- 
ring not  to  alarm  the  woman  by  betraying  the  num- 
ber of  us,  and  concealing  themselves  in  the  byre 
that  leaned  against  the  gable  of  the  dwelling. 

"  God  save  all  here  !  "  said  M'lver,  as  we  stepped 
in,  and  the  woman  lit  the  cruisie  by  sticking  its 
nose  in  the  peat-embers.  "  I  'm  afraid  we  come 
on  you  at  a  bad  time." 

She  turned  with  the  cruisie  in  her  hands  and 
seemed  to  look  over  his  head  at  vacancy,  with 
large  and  melting  eyes  in  a  comely  face. 

"  You  come,"  said  she,  "  like  grief,  just  when  we 
are  not  expecting  it,  and  in  the  dead  of  night. 
But  you  are  welcome  at  my  door." 

We  sat  down  on  stools  at  her  invitation,  bathed 
in  the  yellow  light  of  cruisie  and  peat.  The  reek 
of  the  fire  rose  in  a  faint  breath  among  the  pot- 
chains,  and  lingered  among  the  rafters,  loath,  as  it 
were,  to  emerge  in  the  cold  night.  In  a  cowering 
group  beneath  the  blankets  of  a  bed  in  a  corner 
were  four  children,  the  bed-clothes  hurriedly 
clutched  up  to  their  chins,  their  eyes  staring  out 
on  the  intruders.  The  woman  put  out  some  food 
before  us,  coarse  enough  in  quality  but  plenty  of  it. 


294  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  was  searching  in  a  press  for  platters  when  she 
turned  to  ask  how  many  of  us  there  were.  We  looked 
at  each  other  a  httle  ashamed,  for  it  seemed  as  if  she 
had  guessed  of  our  divided  company  and  the  four 
men  in  the  byre.  It  is  hkely  she  would  have  been 
told  the  truth,  but  her  next  words  set  us  on  a 
different  notion. 

"  You  '11  notice,"  said  she,  still  lifting  her  eyes 
to  a  point  over  our  heads,  "  that  I  have  not  my 
sight." 

"God!  that's  a  pity,"  said  M'lver,  in  genuine 
distress,  with  just  that  accent  of  fondling  in  it  that 
a  Highlander,  in  his  own  tongue,  can  use  like  a 
salve  for  distress. 

"I  am  not  complaining  of  it,"  said  the  woman; 
"  there  are  worse  hardships  in  this  world." 

"  Mistress,"  said  John,  "  there    are.      I   think  I 

would  willingly  have  been  bl dim   in  the  sight 

this  morning  if  it  could  have  happened." 

"Ay,  ay!  "  said  the  woman  in  a  sad  abstraction, 
standing  with  plates  in  her  hand  listening  (I  could 
swear)  for  a  footstep  that  would  never  come  again. 

We  sat  and  warmed  ourselves  and  ate  heartily, 
the  heat  of  that  homely  dwelling  —  the  first  we  had 
sat  in  for  days  —  an  indulgence  so  rare  and  pre- 
cious that  it  seemed  a  thing  we  could  never  again 
tear  ourselves  away  from  to  encounter  the  unkind- 
ness  of  those  Lorn  mounts  anew.  The  children 
watched  us  with  an  alarm  and  curiosity  no  way 
abated,  beholding  in  us  perhaps  (for  one  at  least 
was  at  an  age  to  discern  the  difference  our  tartan 
and  general  aspect  presented  from  llu)se  of  Glencoc) 


JOHN   SPLENDID  295 

that  we  were  strangers  from  a  great  distance,  may- 
be enemies,  at  least  with  some  rigour  of  warfare 
about  our  visage  and  attire.  The  mother,  finding 
her  way  with  the  readiness  of  long  familiarity  about 
the  house,  got  ease  for  her  grief,  whatever  it  was, 
in  the  duties  thus  suddenly  thrust  upon  her :  she 
spoke  but  seldom,  and  she  never  asked  —  in  that 
she  was  true  Gael  —  any  more  particulars  about 
ourselves  than  Stewart  had  volunteered.  And 
when  we  had  been  served  with  our  simple  viands, 
she  sat  composedly  before  us  with  her  hands  in  her 
lap,  and  her  eyes  turned  on  us  with  an  appearance 
of  sedate  scrutiny,  no  whit  the  less  perplexing  be- 
cause we  knew  her  orbs  were  but  fair  clean  window- 
panes  shuttered  and  hasped  within. 

"  You  will  excuse  my  dull  welcome,"  she  said, 
with  a  wan  smile,  speaking  a  very  pleasant  accent 
of  North  Country  Gaelic,  that  turned  upon  the 
palate  like  a  sweet.  "  A  week  or  two  ago  you 
would  have  found  a  very  cheerful  house,  not  a 
widow's  sorrow,  and,  if  my  eyes  were  useless,  my 
man  {l)cannachd  Ids)  had  a  lover's  eyes,  and  these 
were  the  eyes  for  himself  and  me." 

"Was  he  at  Inverlochy?"  I  asked,  softly;  "was 
he  out  with  Montrose?" 

"  He  died  a  week  come  Thursday,"  said  the 
woman.  "They  're  telling  me  of  wars  —  weary  on 
them  and  God's  pity  on  the  widow  women  they 
make,  and  the  mothers  they  must  leave  lonely  — 
but  such  a  thing  is  sorrow  that  the  world,  from 
France  to  the  Isles,  might  be  in  flames  and  I  would 
still  be  thinking  on  my  man  that 's  yonder  in  the 


296  JOHN   SPLENDID 

cold  clods  of  the  yard.  .  .  .  Stretch  your  hands; 
it's  your  welcome,   gentlemen." 

"  I  have  one  or  two  other  friends  out-bye  there 
in  the  byre,"  put  in  Stewart,  who  found  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  youths  in  the  bed  gave  no  opportunity 
for  smuggling  provand  to  the  others  of  our  party. 

The  woman's  face  flamed  up  a  little  and  took  on 
the  least  of  a  look  of  alarm  that  Stewart  —  who 
was  very  cunning  and  quick  in  some  matters  — 
set  about  removing  at  once  with  some  of  those 
convenient  Hes  that  he  seemed  never  out  of  the 
want  of. 

"  Some  of  our  lads,"  said  he,  with  a  duck  of 
apology  at  M'lver  and  myself  for  taking  liberties 
with  the  reputation  of  our  friends.  "  They  're  very 
well  where  they  are  among  the  bracken,  if  they 
had  but  the  bite  and  sup,  and  if  it 's  your  will  I 
could  take  them  that." 

"  Could  they  not  be  coming  in  and  sitting  by  the 
fire?"  asked  the  woman,  set  at  rest  by  Stewart's 
story ;  but  he  told  her  he  would  never  think  of  fill- 
ing her  room  with  a  rabble  of  plain  men,  and  in  a 
little  he  was  taking  out  the  viands  for  our  friends 
in  the  byre. 

The  woman  sat  anew  upon  her  stool  and  her 
hands  on  her  lap,  listening  with  a  sense  so  long  at 
double  exercise  that  now  she  could  not  readily 
relax  the  strain  on  it.  MTver  was  in  a  great  fidget 
to  be  off.  I  could  see  it  in  every  movement  of 
him.  He  was  a  man  who  ever  disliked  to  have  his 
feelings  vexed  by  contact  with  the  everlasting 
griefs  of  life,  and  this  intercourse  with  new  widow- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  297 

hood  was  sore  against  his  mind.  As  for  me,  I  took, 
in  a  way  of  speaking,  the  woman  to  my  heart.  She 
stood  to  me  for  all  the  griefs  I  had  known  in  life, 
and  was  yet  the  representative,  the  figure  of  love  — 
revealing  an  element  of  nature,  a  human  passion 
so  different  from  those  tumults  and  hatreds  we  had 
been  encountering.  I  had  been  thinking  as  I 
marched  among  the  wilds  of  Lochaber  and  Bade- 
noch  that  vengeance  and  victory  and  dominion  by 
the  strong  hand  were  the  main  spurs  to  action,  and 
now,  on  a  sudden,  I  found  that  affection  was 
stronger  than  them  all. 

"Are  you  keeping  the  place  on?"  I  asked  the 
widow,  "  or  do  you  go  back  to  your  folks,  for  I 
notice  from  your  tongue  that  you  are  of  the 
North?" 

"  I  'm  off  the  Grants,"  she  said ;  "  but  my 
heart 's  in  Glencoe,  and  I  '11  never  leave  it.  I  am 
not  grieving  at  the  future,  I  am  but  minding  on 
the  past,  and  I  have  my  bairns.  .  .  .  More  milk 
for  the  lads  outside ;  stretch  your  hands.  .  .  .  Oh 
yes,  I  have  my  bairns." 

"  Long  may  they  prosper,  mistress,"  said  M'lver, 
drumming  with  a  horn  spoon  on  his  knee,  and 
winking  and  smiling  very  friendly  to  the  little 
fellows  in  a  row  in  the  bed,  who,  all  but  the  oldest, 
thawed  to  this  humour  of  the  stranger.  "  It  must 
be  a  task  getting  a  throng  like  yon  bedded  at  even- 
ing. Some  day  they  '11  be  off  your  hand,  and 
it'll  be  no  more  the  lullaby  of  Crodh  Chailein,  but 
them  driving  at  the  beasts  for  themselves." 

"  Are  you  married  ?  "  asked  the  woman. 


298  '     JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  No,"  said  John,  with  a  low  laiigli,  "  not  yet. 
I  never  had  the  fortune  to  fill  the  right  woman's 
eye.  I  've  waited  at  the  ferry  for  some  one  who  '11 
take  a  man  over  without  the  ferry  fee,  for  I  'm  a 
poor  gentleman,  though  I'm  of  a  good  family,  and 
had  plenty,  and  the  ones  with  the  tocher  won't 
have  me,  and  the  tocherless  girls  I  dare  not 
betray." 

"  You  ken  the  old  word,"  said  the  woman  ;  "  the 
man  who  waits  long  at  the  ferry  will  get  over  some 
day." 

Stewart  put  down  a  cogie  and  loosened  a  button 
of  his  vest,  and  with  an  air  of  great  joviality,  that 
was  marred  curiously  by  the  odd  look  his  absence 
of  lugs  conferred,  he  winked  cunningly  at  us  and 
slapped  the  woman  in  a  rough  friendship  on  the 
shoulder. 

"  Are  you  thinking  yourself "  he  began,  and 

what  he  would  finish  with  may  be  easily  guessed. 
But  M'lver  fixed  him  with  an  eye  that  pricked 
like  a  rapier. 

"  Sit  ye  down,  Stewart,"  said  he;  "your  race  is 
royal,  as  ye  must  be  aye  telling  us,  but  there's 
surely  many  a  droll  bye-blow  in  the  breed." 

"Are  you  not  all  from  Appin?"  asked  the 
woman,  wath  a  new  interest,  taking  a  corner  of 
M'lver's  plaiding  in  her  hands  and  running  a  few 
checks  through  the  fine  delicate  fingers  of  a  lady. 
Her  face  dyed  crimson;  she  drew  back  her  stool 
a  little,  and  cried  out  — 

"  That 's  not  off  a  Stewart  web  —  it  was  never 
waulked  in  Appin.     Whom  have  I  here?" 


JOHN   SPLENDID  299 

John  Splendid  bent  to  her  very  kindly  and  laid 
a  hand  on  hers. 

"  I  '11  tell  you  the  God's  truth,  mother,"  said  he; 
"  we  're  broken  men  ;  we  have  one  Stewart  of  a  kind 
with  us,  but  we  belong  to  parts  far  off  from  here, 
and  all  we  want  is  to  get  to  them  as  speedily  as 
may  be.  I  '11  put  you  in  mind  (but  troth  I  'm  sure 
it's  not  needed)  of  two  obligations  that  lie  on 
every  Gaelic  household.  One  of  them  is  to  give 
the  shelter  of  the  night  and  the  supper  of  the  night 
to  the  murderer  himself,  even  if  the  corpse  on  the 
heather  was  your  son ;  and  the  other  is  to  ask  no 
question  off  your  guest  till  he  has  drunk  the 
deocJi-an-doru  is." 

"  I  'm  grudging  you  nothing,"  said  the  woman  ; 
"  but  a  blind  widow  is  entitled  to  the  truth  and 
frankness." 

M'lver  soothed  her  with  great  skill,  and  brought 
her  back  to  her  bairns. 

"  Ay,"  said  he,  "  some  day  they  '11  be  off  your 
hands,  and  you  the  lady  with  sons  and  servants." 

"  Had  you  a  wife  and  bairns  of  your  own,"  said 
the  woman,  "  you  might  learn  some  day  that  a 
parent's  happiest  time  is  when  her  children  are 
young.  They  're  all  there,  and  they  're  all  mine 
when  they  're  under  the  blanket ;  but  when  they 
grow  up  and  scatter,  the  nightfall  never  brings 
them  all  in,  and  one  pair  of  blankets  will  not 
cover  the  cares  of  them.  I  do  not  know  that," 
she  went  on,  "  from  what  I  have  seen  in  my  own 
house ;  but  my  mother  told  me,  and  she  had 
plenty  of  chance  to  learn  the  truth  of  it,  with  sons 


300  JOHN   SPLENDID 

who  died  among  strangers,  and  sons  who  bruised 
her  by  their  hves  more  than  they  could  by  their 
deaths." 

"  You  have  some  very  ruddy  and  handsome 
boys  there,"  said  M'lver.  And  aye  he  would  be 
winking  and  smiling  at  the  young  rogues  in  the 
corner. 

"  I  think  they  are,"  said  the  woman.  "  I  never 
saw  but  the  eldest,  and  he  was  then  at  the  breast, 
mo  viJicudail,  the  dear,  his  father's  image." 

"Then  the  father  of  him  must  have  been  a  well- 
fared  and  pretty  man,"  said  John,  very  promptly, 
not  a  bit  abashed  by  the  homeliness  of  the  youth, 
who  was  the  plainest  of  the  flock,  with  a  freckled 
skin,  a  low  hang-dog  brow,  and  a  nose  like  the 
point  of  a  dirk. 

"  He  was  that,"  said  the  woman,  fondly —  "the 
finest  man  in  the  parish.  He  had  a  little  lameness, 
but " 

"  I  have  a  bit  of  a  halt,  myself,"  said  M'lver, 
with  his  usual  folly;  "and  I'm  sure  I'm  none 
the  worse  for  it." 

The  oldest  boy  sat  up  in  bed  and  gloomed  at  us 
very  sullenly.  He  could  scarcely  be  expected  to 
understand  the  conceits  of  M Tver's  talc  about  his 
lameness,  that  any  one  with  eyes  could  behold 
had  no  existence. 

"But  I  never  think  of  my  man,"  the  woman 
went  on,  "  but  as  I  saw  him  first  before  he  met 
with  his  lameness.  Eyes  are  a  kind  of  doubtful 
blessing  too  in  some  ways.  Mine  have  forgotten 
all  the  ugly  things  they  knew,  and  in  my  recollec- 


JOHN    SPLENDID  301 

tion  are  but  many  bonny  things :  my  man  was 
always  as  young  to  me  as  when  he  came  court- 
ing in  a  new  blue  bonnet  and  a  short  coat;  my 
children  will  be  changing  to  every  one  but  to 
me." 

Stewart,  with  his  own  appetite  satisfied,  was 
acting  lackey  to  the  gentlemen  in  the  byre  — 
fetching  out  cogies  of  milk  and  whangs  of  bear- 
meal  bannock,  and  the  most  crisp  piquant  white 
cheese  ever  I  put  tooth  to.  He  was  a  man  with- 
out a  conscience,  and  so  long  as  his  own  ends  and 
the  ends  of  his  friends  were  served,  he  would  never 
scruple  to  empty  the  woman's  girnel  or  toom  her 
last  basin,  and  leave  her  no  morsel  of  food  or  drink 
at  the  long-run.  But  M'lver  and  I  put  an  end  to 
that,  and  so  won,  as  we  thought,  to  the  confidence 
of  the  elder  lad  in  the  bed,  who  had  glunched  low- 
browed among  his  franker  brethren. 

We  slept  for  some  hours,  the  seven  of  us,  among 
the  bracken  of  the  byre,  wearied  out  and  unable 
to  go  farther  that  night,  even  if  the  very  dogs  were 
at  our  heels.  We  slept  sound,  I  'm  sure,  all  but 
M'lver,  whom,  waking  twice  in  the  chill  of  the 
night,  I  found  sitting  up  and  listening  like  any 
sentinel. 

"What  are  you  watching  for  there?"  I  asked 
him  on  the  second  time. 

"  Nothing  at  all,  Colin,  nothing  at  all.  I  was 
aye  a  poor  sleeper  at  the  best,  and  that  snore  of 
Rob  Stewart  is  the  very  trump  of  the  next  world." 

It  was  in  the  dawn  again  he  confessed  to  his  real 
apprehension,  —  only   to    my  private    ear,  for   he 


302  JOHN   SPLENDID 

wished  no  more  to  alarm  the  others  by  day  than 
to  mar  my  courtship  of  slumber  by  night. 

"  The  fact  is,"  said  he,  "  I  'm  not  very  sure  about 
our  young  gentleman  yonder  in  the  bed.  He  's 
far  too  sharp  in  the  eye  and  black  in  the  temper, 
and  too  much  of  Clan  Donallachd  generally,  to 
be  trusted  with  the  lives  and  liberties  of  seven 
gentlemen  of  a  tartan  he  must  know  unfriendly  to 
Glencoe.  I  wish  I  saw  his  legs  that  I  might  guess 
the  length  of  him,  or  had  had  the  wit  to  ask  his 
mother  his  age,  for  either  would  be  a  clue  to  his 
chance  of  carrying  the  tale  against  us  down  the 
valley  there.  He  seemed  tremendous  sharp  and 
wicked  lying  yonder  looking  at  us,  and  I  was  in 
a  sweat  all  night  for  fear  he  would  be  out  and  tell 
on  us.  But  so  far  he  's  under  the  same  roof  as 
ourselves." 

Sonachan  and  the  baron-bailie  quarrelled  away 
about  some  point  of  pedigree  as  they  sat,  a  towsy, 
unkempt  pair,  in  a  dusty  corner  of  the  byre,  with 
beards  of  a  most  scraggy  nature  grown  upon  their 
chins.  Their  uncouthncss  gave  a  scruple  of  fop- 
pishness to  MTver,  and  sent  him  seeking  a  razor 
in  the  widow's  house.  He  found  the  late  husband's 
and  shaved  himself  trimly,  while  Stewart  pla)'cd 
lackey  again  to  the  rest  of  us,  taking  out  a  break- 
fast the  housewife  was  in  the  humour  to  force  on 
us.  He  had  completed  his  scraping,  and  was 
cracking  away  very  freely  with  the  woman,  who 
WIS  baking  some  bannocks  on  the  stone,  with 
sleeves  rolled  up  from  arms  that  were  rounded  and 
white.     They  talked  of  the  husband  (the  one  topic 


JOHN   SPLENDID  303 

of  new  widowhood),  a  man,  it  appeared,  of  a  thou- 
sand parts,  a  favourite  with  all,  and  yet,  as  she  said, 
"  When  it  came  to  the  black  end  they  left  me  to 
dress  him  for  the  grave,  and  a  stranger  had  to 
bury  him." 

M'lver,  looking  fresh  and  spruce  after  his  cleans- 
ing, though  his  eyes  were  small  for  want  of  sleep, 
aroused  at  once  to  an  interest  in  the  cause  of  this 
unneighbourliness. 

The  woman  stopped  her  occupation  with  a 
sudden  start  and  flared  crimson. 

"  I  thought  you  knew,"  said  she,  stammering, 
turning  a  rolling-pin  in  her  hand  —  "I  thought  you 
knew;  and  then  how  could  you?  ...  I  maybe 
should  have  mentioned  it,  .  .  .  but,  .  .  .  but 
could  I  turn  you  from  my  door  in  the  nighttime 
and  hunger? " 

MTver  whistled  softly  to  himself,  and  looked  at 
me  where  I  stood  in  the  byre-door. 

"  Tuts,"  said  he,  at  last,  turning  with  a  smile  to 
the  woman,  as  if  she  could  see  him ;  "  what  does 
a  bit  difference  with  Lowland  law  make  after  all  ? 
I  '11  tell  you  this,  mistress,  between  us,  —  I  have 
a  name  myself  for  private  foray,  and  it 's  perhaps 
not  the  first  time  I  have  earned  the  justification  of 
the  kind  gallows  of  Crief  by  small  diversions 
among  cattle  at  night.  It 's  the  least  deserving 
that  get  the  tow  gravat." 

(Oh,  you  liar!   I  thought.) 

The  woman's  face  looked  puzzled.  She  thought 
a  little,  and  said,  "  I  think  you  must  be  taking  me 
up  wrong;  my  man  was  never  at  the  trade  of 
reiving,  and " 


304  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  I  would  never  hint  that  he  was,  goodwife," 
cried  John,  quickly,  puzzled-looking  himself.  "  I 
said  I  had  a  name  for  the  thing;  but  they  were 
no  friends  of  mine  who  gave  me  the  credit,  and  I 
never  stole  stot  or  quey  in  all  my  life." 

(I  have  my  doubts,  thinks  I.) 

"My  man  died  of  the  plague,"  said  the  woman, 
blurting  out  her  news,  as  if  eager  to  get  over  an 
awkward  business. 

I  have  never  seen  such  a  sudden  change  in  a 
person's  aspect  as  came  over  John  Splendid  in 
every  feature.  The  vain,  trim  man  of  a  minute 
ago,  stroking  his  chin  and  showing  a  white  hand 
(for  the  entertainment  of  the  woman  he  must 
always  be  forgetting  was  without  her  sight),  bal- 
ancing and  posturing  on  well-curved  legs,  and 
jauntily  pinning  his  plaid  on  his  shoulder,  in  a 
flash  lost  backbone.  He  stepped  a  pace  back,  as 
if  some  one  had  struck  him  a  blow,  his  jaw  fell, 
and  his  face  grew  ashen.  Then  his  eyes  went 
darting  about  the  chamber,  and  his  nostrils  sniffed 
as  if  disease  was  a  presence  to  be  seen  and  scented, 
—  a  thing  tangible  in  the  air,  maybe  to  be  warded 
off  by  a  sharp  man's  instruction  in  combat  of 
arms. 

"  God  of  grace !  "  he  cried,  crossing  himself 
most  vigorously  for  a  person  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  muttering  what  I  have  no  doubt  was 
some  charm  of  his  native  glen  for  the  prevention 
of  fevers.  He  shut  his  mouth  thereafter  very 
quickly  on  every  phrase  he  uttered,  breathing 
through  his  nose;   at  the  same  time  he  kept  him- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  305 

self,  in  every  part  but  the  shoesoles  he  tiptoed  on, 
from  touching  anything.  I  could  swear  the  open 
air  of  the  most  unfriendly  glen  in  Christendom 
was  a  possession  to  be  envious  of  for  John  M'lver 
of  Barbreck. 

Stewart  heard  the  woman's  news  that  came  to 
him  as  he  was  carrying  in  from  the  byre  the  ves- 
sels from  which  he  had  been  serving  his  compan- 
ions. He  was  in  a  stew  more  extraordinary  than 
John  Splendid ;  he  blanched  even  to  the  scars  of 
his  half-head,  as  we  say,  spat  vehemently  out  of  his 
mouth  a  piece  of  bread  he  was  chewing,  turned 
round  about  in  a  flash,  and  into  the  byre  past 
me  as  I  stood  (not  altogether  alarmed,  but  yet  a 
little  disturbed  and  uneasy)  in  the  doorway.  He 
emptied  his  clothing  and  knapsack  of  every  scrap 
of  food  he  had  purloined,  making  a  goodly  heap 
upon  the  floor,  —  the  very  oaten  flour  he  dusted 
oft"  his  finger-tips,  with  which  he  had  handled  cake 
that  a  little  ago  he  was  risking  his  soul's  salvation 
to  secure.  And  —  except  the  minister  —  the  other 
occupants  of  the  byre  were  in  an  equal  terror. 

For  in  this  matter  of  smittal  plagues  we  High- 
landers are  the  most  arrant  cowards.  A  man 
whose  life  we  would  save  on  the  field,  or  the  rock- 
face,  or  the  sea,  at  the  risk  of  our  own  lives  or  the 
more  abominable  peril  of  wound  and  agony,  will 
die  in  a  ditch  of  the  Spotted  Death  or  a  fever  be- 
fore the  most  valiant  of  us  would  put  out  a  hand 
to  cover  him  again  with  his  blanket.  He  will  get 
no  woman  to  sound  his  coronach,  even  if  he  were 
Lord  of  the  Isles.     I  am  not  making  defence  or 


3o6  JOHN    SPLENDID 

admitting  blame,  thouy,h  I  have  walked  in  Ham- 
burg when  the  pitch-barrels  blazed  in  the  street, 
fuming  the  putrid  wind  ;  but  there  is  in  the  Gaelic 
character  a  dread  of  disfiguration  more  than  of 
sudden  and  painful  death.  What  we  fear  is  the 
black  mystery  of  such  disorders:  they  come  on 
cunning  winds  unheralded,  in  fair  weather  or  bad, 
day  or  night,  to  the  rich  and  to  the  poor,  to  the 
strong  as  to  the  weak.  You  may  be  robust  to-day 
in  a  smiling  country  and  to-morrow  in  a  twist  of 
agony,  coal-black,  writhing  on  the  couch,  every 
fine  interest  in  life  blotted  out  by  a  yellow  film 
upon  the  eyes.  A  vital  gash  with  a  claymore  con- 
fers a  bloodier  but  a  more  comely  and  natural 
end.  Thus  the  Gael  abhors  the  very  roads  that 
lead  to  a  plague-struck  dwelling.  If  plagues  do 
not  kill,  they  will  mar — yes,  even  against  the 
three  charms  of  Island  I,  and  that,  too,  makes 
heavier  their  terror,  for  a  man  mutilated  even  by 
so  little  as  the  loss  of  a  hand  is  an  object  of  pity 
to  every  hale  member  of  his  clan.  He  may  have 
won  his  infirmity  in  a  noble  hour,  but  they  will 
pity  him,  and  pity  to  the  proud  is  worse  than  the 
glove  in  the  face. 

Instantly  there  was  a  great  to-do  in  getting 
away  from  this  most  unfortunate  dwelling.  The 
lads  in  the  byre  shook  tartan  antl  out  to  the  fresh 
air,  and  rejoiced  in  the  wind  with  deep-drawn 
gulping  breaths,  as  if  they  might  wash  the  smallest 
dust  of  disease  from  their  bodily  system.  So  at 
last  only  MTver  and  I  w'erc  left  standing  at  the 
door. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  307 

"Well,"  said  John,  with  an  effort,  "  we  must  be 
going.  I  never  thought  it  was  so  late.  And  we 
must  be  on  the  other  side  of  Dalness  before  very 
long.  You  have  been  very  good  to  us,  and  my 
name's  John  M'lver,  of  Barbreck — a  kind  of 
Campbell  with  a  great  respect  for  the  MacDonalds, 
of  whom  I  kent  a  few  perfect  gentry  in  foreign 
wars  I  have  been  at  the  fighting  of.  And  —  good 
day,  mistress,  we  must  be  going.  My  friends 
have  the  very  small  manners  surely,  for  they  're 
off  down  the  road.  We  '11  just  let  them  go  that 
way.  What  need  ye  expect  off  small  men  and 
gillies?  " 

He  signed  to  me  with  a  shake  of  his  sporran  to 
show  it  was  empty,  and,  falling  to  his  meaning,  I 
took  some  silver  from  my  own  purse  and  offered  it 
to  the  glum-faced  lad  in  the  blankets.  Beetle-brow 
scowled,  and  refused  to  put  a  hand  out  for  it,  so  I 
left  it  on  a  table  without  a  clink  to  catch  the 
woman's  ear. 

"  Would  you  not  have  a  dcocJi-an-doriiis  ?  "  asked 
the  woman,  making  to  a  press  and  producing  a 
bottle. 

M'lver  started  in  a  new  alarm.  "No,  no. 
You're  very  good,"  said  he;  "  but  I  never  take  it 
myself  in  the  morning,  and  —  good  day,  mistress 
—  and  my  friend  Elrigmore,  who 's  left  with  me 
here,  is  perhaps  too  free  with  it  sometimes ;  and 
indeed  maybe  I  'm  that  way  myself  too  —  it 's  a 
thing  that  grows  on  you.     Good-bye,  mistress." 

She  put  out  her  hand,  facing  us  with  uplifted 
eyes,     I  felt  a  push  at  my  shoulder,  and  the  min- 


3o8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

ister,  who  had  left  the  four  others  down  the  brae, 
stepped  softly  into  the  room.  M'lver  was  in  a 
high  perplexity.  He  dare  not  shake  the  woman's 
hand,  and  still  he  dare  not  hurt  her  feelings.  "  My 
thong's  loose,"  said  he,  stooping  to  fumble  with  a 
brogue  that  needed  no  such  attention.  He  rose 
with  the  minister  at  his  shoulder. 

"  And  good-day  to  you  again,  mistress,"  said 
M'lver,  turning  about  to  go,  without  heeding  the 
outstretched  hand. 

Master  Gordon  saw  the  whole  play  at  a  glance. 
He  took  the  woman's  hand  in  his  without  a  word, 
wrung  it  with  great  warmth,  and,  seized  as  it 
seemed  by  a  sudden  whim,  lifted  the  fingers  to  his 
lips,  softly  kissed  them,  and  turned  away. 

"  O,"  cried  the  woman,  with  tears  welling  to  her 
poor  eyes  —  "  O,  Clan  Campbell,  I  '11  never  call 
ye  down !  Ye  may  have  the  guile  they  claim  for 
ye,  but  ye  have  the  way  with  a  widow's  heart !  " 

I  did  it  with  some  repugnance,  let  me  own ;  but 
I,  too,  shook  her  hand,  and  followed  the  minister 
out  at  the  door.  M'lver  was  hot  with  annoyance 
and  shame,  and  ready  to  find  fault  with  us  for 
what  we  had  done;  but  the  cleric  carded  him  like 
wool  in  his  feelings. 

"  Oh,  valour,  valour !  "  he  said,  in  the  midst  of 
his  sermon,  "  did  I  not  say  you  knew  your  duty 
in  hate  better  than  in  affection?" 

John  Splendid  kept  a  dour-set  jaw,  said  never  a 
word,  and  the  seven  of  us  proceeded  on  our  way. 

It  was  well  on  in  the  morning,  the  land  sounding 
with  a  new  key  of  troubled  and  loosening  waters. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  309 

Mists  clogged  the  mountain-tops,  and  Glencoe  far 
off  to  its  westward  streamed  with  a  dun  vapour 
pricked  with  the  tip  of  fir  and  ash.  A  moist  feel 
was  in  the  air;   it  relapsed  anon  to  a  smirr  of  rain. 

"  This  is  a  shade  better  than  clear  airs  and  frost 
and  level  snow  for  quarries  on  a  hunting,"  said  I. 

"I'm  glad  it  suits  you,"  said  MTver.  "I've 
seen  the  like  before,  and  I  'm  not  so  sure  about 
the  advantage  of  it." 


3IO  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

The  rain  that  was  a  smirr  or  drizzle  on  the  north 
side  of  Glencoe  grew  to  a  steady  shower  in  the 
valley  itself,  and  when  we  had  traversed  a  bit  in 
the  airt  of  Tynree  it  had  become  a  pouring  torrent 
—  slanting  in  our  faces  with  the  lash  of  whips, 
streaming  from  the  hair  and  crinkling  the  hands, 
and  leaving  the  bonnet  on  the  head  as  heavy  as 
any  French  soldier's  salade.  I  am  no  great  un- 
lover  of  a  storm  in  the  right  circumstances.  There 
is  a  long  strath  between  Nordlingen  and  Donauworth 
of  Bavaria,  where  once  we  amazed  our  foreign 
allies  by  setting  out,  bare  to  the  kilt  and  sark,  in 
threshing  hail,  running  for  miles  in  the  pelt  of  it 
out  of  the  sheer  content  of  encounter  —  and  per- 
haps a  flagon  or  two  of  wine.  It  was  a  bravado, 
perhaps,  but  a  ploy  to  brace  the  spirit ;  we  gath- 
ered from  it  some  of  the  virtues  of  our  simple  but 
ample  elders,  who  were  strong  men  when  they  lay 
asleep  with  a  check  to  the  naked  earth  and  held 
their  faces  frankly  up  to  sun  or  rain.  But  if  we 
rejoiced  in  the  rains  of  Bavaria,  there  was  no  cause 
for  glee  in  those  torrents  of  Glencoe,  for  they 
made  our  passage  through  the  country  more  diffi- 
cult and  more  dangerous  than  it  was  before.  The 
snow  on  the  ground  was  for  hours  a  slushy  com- 
post, that  the  foot  slipped  on  at  every  step,  or  that 


JOHN   SPLENDID  311 

filled  the  brogue  with  a  paste  that  nipped  like 
brine.  And  when  the  melting  snow  ran  to  lower 
levels,  the  soil  itself,  relaxing  the  rigour  of  its 
frost,  became  as  soft  as  butter  and  as  unstable  to 
the  foot.  The  burns  filled  to  the  lip  and  brawled 
over,  new  waters  sprung  up  among  the  rocks  and 
ran  across  our  path,  so  that  we  were  for  ever 
wading  and  slipping  and  splashing  and  stumbling 
on  a  route  that  seemed  never  to  come  to  any  end 
or  betterment. 

Seven  more  pitiful  men  never  trod  High- 
lands. The  first  smirr  soaked  our  clothing ;  by 
the  middle  of  the  glen  we  were  drenched  to  the 
hide,  and  the  rain  was  flowing  from  the  edges  of 
our  kilts  in  runnels.  Thus  heaven  scourged  us 
with  waters  till  about  the  hour  of  noon,  when  she 
alternated  water  with  wind  and  gales  burst  from 
the  west,  the  profound  gorges  of  Stob  Dubh  belch- 
ing full  to  the  throat  with  animus.  There  were 
fir-plantings  by  the  way,  whose  branches  twanged 
and  boomed  in  those  terrific  blasts,  that  on  the 
bare  braeside  lifted  up  the  snow  with  an  invisible 
scoop  and  flung  it  in  our  faces. 

Stewart  and  the  man  with  the  want  led  the  way, 
the  latter  ever  with  his  eyes  red  a-weeping,  look- 
ing about  him  with  starts  and  tremors,  moaning 
lamentably  at  every  wail  of  wind,  but  ceasing  now 
and  then  to  gnaw  a  bone  he  had  had  enough  of  a 
thief's  wit  to  pouch  in  the  house  of  the  blind 
widow.  Stewart,  a  lean  wiry  man,  covered  the 
way  with  a  shepherd's  long  stride  —  heel  and  toe 
and  the  last  spring  from  the  knee  —  most  poverty- 


312  JOHN   SPLENDID 

struck  and  mean  in  a  kilt  that  flapped  too  low  on 
his  leg  and  was  frayed  to  ribbons,  a  man  with  but 
one  wish  in  the  world,  to  save  his  own  unworthy 
skin,  even  if  every  one  else  of  our  distressed  corps 
found  a  sodden  and  abominable  death  in  the 
swamps  or  rocks  of  that  doleful  valley.  Then  on 
the  rear  behind  those  commoners  came  the  minis- 
ter and  John  Splendid  and  myself,  the  minister  with 
his  breeks  burst  at  the  knees,  his  stockings  caught 
up  with  a  poor  show  of  trimness  by  a  braid  of 
rushes,  contrived  by  M'lver,  and  his  coat-skirts 
streaming  behind  him.  You  could  not  but  re- 
spect the  man's  courage :  many  a  soldier  I  've  seen 
on  the  dour  hard  leagues  of  Germanic  - —  good 
soldiers  too,  heart  and  body  —  collapse  under 
hardships  less  severe.  Gordon,  with  a  drawn  and 
curd-white  face,  and  eyes  burning  like  lamps,  sur- 
rendered his  body  to  his  spirit,  and  it  bore  him  as 
in  a  dream  through  wind  and  water,  over  moor 
and  rock,  and  amid  the  woods  that  now  and  again 
we  had  to  hide  in. 

That  we  had  to  hide  so  little  was  one  of  the 
miracles  of  our  traverse.  At  any  other  time  per- 
haps Glencoe  and  the  regions  round  about  it  would 
be  as  well  tenanted  as  any  low-country  strath,  for  it 
abounded  on  cither  hand  with  townships,  with 
crofts  that  perched  on  brief  plateaux,  here  and 
there  with  black  bothy-houses  such  as  are  (they 
say)  the  common  dwellings  over  all  the  Hcbrid 
Isles.  Yet,  moving,  not  in  the  ultimate  hollow  of 
the  valley,  but  in  fighting  fashion  upon  the  upper 
levels,  we  were  out  of  the  way  of  molestation,  and 


JOHN   SPLENDID  313 

in  any  case  it  was  a  valley  for  the  time  deserted 
of  men.  Women  we  could  see  in  plenty,  drawing 
water  or  bearing  peats  in  from  the  bogs  behind  their 
dwellings,  or  crossing  from  house  to  house  or  toun 
to  toun,  with  plaids  drawn  tightly  over  their  heads, 
their  bodies  bent  to  meet  the  blasts  that  made  their 
clothing  banner  and  full.  Nor  children  either 
were  there  in  that  most  barren  country,  or  they 
kept  within,  sheltering  the  storms  assailing,  and 
the  want  of  them  (for  I  have  ever  loved  the  little 
ones)  added  twenty-fold  to  my  abhorrence  of  the 
place. 

We  had  to  hide  but  rarely,  I  say :  two  or  three 
times  when  down  in  the  valley's  depths  there  showed 
a  small  group  of  men  who  were  going  in  the  same 
direction  as  ourselves  by  the  more  natural  route,  at 
a  quarter  of  a  league's  distance  in  advance  of  us. 
They  were  moving  with  more  speed  than  we,  and 
for  a  time  we  had  the  notion  that  they  might  be 
survivors,  like  ourselves,  of  Argile's  clan.  But 
at  last  this  fancy  was  set  at  flight  by  the  openness 
of  their  march,  as  well  as  by  their  stoppage  at 
several  houses  by  the  way,  from  which  they  seemed 
to  be  joined  by  other  men,  who  swelled  their 
numbers  so  that  after  a  time  there  would  be  over 
a  score  of  them  on  the  mission,  whatever  it  might 
be.  In  that  misty  rain-swept  day  the  eye  could 
not  carry  far,  and  no  doubt  they  were  plainer  to 
our  view  than  we  were  to  theirs  among  the  drab 
vapours  of  the  hillside.  But  once  or  twice  we 
thought  they  perceived  us,  for  they  stopped  and 
looked  to  the  left  and  up  the  brae-face  we  were 


314  JOHN   SPLENDID 

on,  and  then  it  was  we  had  to  seek  the  shelter  of 
tree  or  bush.  If  they  saw  us,  they  seemed  to  sus- 
pect no  evil,  for  they  held  on  their  way,  still  ahead 
of  us,  and  making  for  Tynree.  Whoever  they  were, 
they  became  at  last  so  manifest  a  danger  to  our 
escape  out  of  the  head  of  the  glen  that  we  fell 
back  anew  on  the  first  plan  of  going  through  the 
corries  on  the  south  side  of  the  glen  and  piercing 
by  them  to  Dalness.  In  the  obscurity  of  a  great 
shower  that  set  up  a  screen  between  us  and  the 
company  marching  to  Tynree,  we  darted  down 
the  brae,  across  the  glen,  and  over  to  the  passage 
they  call  the  Lairig  Eilde  that  is  on  the  west  of  the 
great  Little  Herd  hill  of  Etive,  and  between  it  and 
Ben  Fhada  or  the  Long  Mount,  whose  peaks  you 
will  find  with  snow  in  their  gullies  in  the  height 
of  summer. 

It  was  with  almost  a  jocund  heart  I  turned  my 
back  on  Glencoe  as  we  took  a  drove-path  up  from 
the  river.  But  I  glanced  with  a  shiver  down  its 
terrible  distance  upon  that  nightmare  of  gulf  and 
eminence,  of  gash,  and  peaks  afloat  upon  swirling 
mists.  It  lay,  a  looming  horror,  forgotten  of 
heaven  and  unfriendly  to  man  (as  one  might 
readily  imagine),  haunted  for  ever  with  wailing 
airs  and  rumours,  ghosts  calling  in  the  deeps  of 
dusk  and  melancholy,  legends  of  horror  and 
remorse. 

"  Thank  God,"  said  I,  as  we  gave  the  last  look 
at  it  —  "  thank  God  I  was  not  born  and  bred  yon- 
der. Those  hills  would  crush  my  heart  against 
my  very  ribs." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  315 

"  It 's  good  enough  for  the  people  who  are 
in  it,"  said  John.  "  What  are  they  but  Mac- 
Donalds?  'Take  and  not  give'  is  their  motto. 
They  can  have  Glencoe  for  me,  with  M'Millan's 
right  to  Knapdale,  —  as  long  as  wave  beats  on  rock." 

Master  Gordon,  though  we  had  spoken  in  the 
Gaelic,  half  guessed  our  meaning.  "  A  black 
place  and  mournful,"  said  he ;  "  but  there  may 
be  love  there  too  and  warm  hearts,  and  soil  where 
the  truth  might  flourish  as  in  the  champaign  over 
against  Gilgal  beside  the  plains  of  Moreh." 

Now  we  were  in  a  tract  of  country  mournful 
beyond  my  poor  description.  I  know  corries  in 
Argile  that  whisper  silken  to  the  winds  with  juicy 
grasses,  corries  where  the  deer  love  to  prance 
deep  in  the  cool  dew,  and  the  beasts  of  far-ofif 
woods  come  in  bands  at  their  seasons  and  together 
rejoice.  I  have  seen  the  hunter  in  them  and  the 
shepherd,  too,  coarse  men  in  life  and  occupation, 
come  sudden  among  the  blowing  rush  and  whis- 
pering reed,  among  the  bog-flower  and  the  can- 
noch,  unheeding  the  moor-hen  and  the  cailzie-cock 
rising,  or  the  stag  of  ten  at  pause,  while  they 
stood,  passionate  adventurers  in  a  rapture  of  the 
mind,  held  as  it  were  by  the  spirit  of  such  places 
as  they  lay  in  a  slobcrry  bloom  of  haze,  the  spirit 
of  old  good  songs,  the  baffling  surmise  of  the 
piper  and  the  bard.  To  those  corries  of  my 
native  place  will  be  coming  in  the  yellow  moon  of 
brock  and  foumart  —  the  beasts  that  dote  on  the 
autumn  eves  —  the  People  of  Quietness;  have  I 
not  seen  their  lanthorns  and  heard  their  lau<jhter 


3i6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

in  the  night?  —  so  that  they  must  be  blessed 
corries,  so  endowed  since  the  days  when  the  gods 
dwelt  in  them  without  tartan  and  spear  in  the 
years  of  the  peace  that  had  no  beginning. 

But  the  corries  of  Lorn ;  black  night  on  them, 
and  the  rain  rot !  They  were  troughs  of  despond 
as  we  went  struggling  through  them.  The  knife- 
keen  rushes  whipped  us  at  the  thigh,  the  swamps 
bubbled  in  our  shoes.  Round  us  rose  the  hills 
gray  and  bald,  sown  with  boulders  and  crowned 
with  sour  mists.  Surely  in  them  the  sun  never 
peeps  even  in  the  long  days  of  summer :  the  star, 
I  '11  warrant,  never  rained  on  them  his  calm 
influence ! 

Dolour  left  us  speechless  as  we  trudged,  even 
when  for  a  time  we  were  lost.  We  essayed  in  a 
silence  at  openings  here  and  there,  at  hacks  and 
water-currents,  wandering  off  from  each  other, 
whistling  and  calling,  peering  from  rock-brows  or 
spying  into  wounds  upon  the  hills,  so  that  when 
we  reached  Dalness  it  was  well  on  in  the  day.  If 
in  summer  weather  the  night  crawls  slowly  on  the 
Highlands,  the  winter  brings  a  fast  black  rider 
indeed.  His  hoofs  were  drumming  on  the  hills 
when  first  we  saw  sight  of  Dalness ;  he  was  over 
and  beyond  us  when  we  reached  the  plain.  The 
land  of  Lorn  was  black  dark  to  the  very  roots  of 
its  trees,  and  the  rivers  and  burns  themselves  got 
lost  in  the  thick  of  it,  and  went  through  the  night 
calling  from  hollow  to  hollow  to  hearten  each  other 
till  the  dawn. 

Dalness  lies  in  Glen  Etive,  at  a  gushet  of  hills 


JOHN    SPLENDID  317 

on  either  side  of  which  he  paths  known  to  the 
drover  and  the  adventurer.  The  house  receded 
from  the  passes  and  lay  back  in  a  pleasance  walled 
by  whin  or  granite,  having  a  wattled  gate  at  the 
entrance.  When  we  were  descending  the  pass  we 
could  see  a  glare  of  light  come  from  the  place 
even  though  the  mist  shrouded,  and  by  the  time 
we  got  to  the  gate  it  was  apparent  that  the  house 
was  lit  in  every  chamber.  The  windows  that 
pierced  the  tall  gables  threw  beams  of  light  into 
the  darkness,  and  the  open  door  poured  out  a  yel- 
low flood.  At  the  time  we  came  on  it  first  we 
were  unaware  of  our  propinquity  to  it,  and  this 
mansion  looming  on  us  suddenly  through  the 
vapours  seemed  a  cantrip  of  witchcraft,  a  dwell- 
ing's ghost,  gray,  eerie,  full  of  frights,  a  phantom 
of  the  mind  rather  than  a  habitable  home.  We 
paused  in  a  dumb  astonishment  to  look  at  it  lying 
there  in  the  darkness,  a  thing  so  different  from 
the  barren  hills  and  black  bothies  behind  our 
shoulders. 

We  gathered  in  a  cluster  near  the  wattle  gate, 
the  minister  perhaps  the  only  man  who  had  the 
wit  to  acknowledge  the  reality  of  the  vision.  His 
eyes  fairly  gloated  on  this  evidence  of  civilised 
state,  so  much  recalling  the  surroundings  in  which 
he  was  most  at  home.  As  by  an  instinct  of 
decency,  he  drew  up  his  slack  hose  and  bound 
them  anew  with  the  rushen  garters,  and  pulled  his 
coat-lapels  straight  upon  his  chest,  and  set  his 
dripping  peruke  upon  his  head  with  a  touch  of  the 
dandy's  air,  all  the  time  with  his  eyes  on   those 


3i8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

gleaming  windows,  as  if  he  feared  to  relinquish 
the  spectacle  a  moment,  lest  it  should  fly  like  a 
dream. 

We  had  thought  first  of  pushing  across  the  glen, 
over  the  river,  through  Corrie  Ghuibhasan,  and 
into  the  Black  Mount;  but  the  journey  in  a  night 
like  what  was  now  fallen  was  not  to  be  attempted. 
On  the  hills  beyond  the  river  the  dog-fox  barked 
with  constancy,  his  vixen  screeching  like  a  child  — 
signs  of  storm  that  no  one  dare  gainsay.  So  we 
determined  to  seek  shelter  and  concealment  some- 
where in  the  policies  of  the  house.  But  first  of  all 
we  had  to  find  what  the  occasion  was  of  this  bril- 
liancy in  Dalness,  and  if  too  many  people  for  our 
safety  were  not  in  the  neighbourhood.  I  was  sent 
forward  to  spy  the  place,  while  my  companions 
lay  waiting  below  a  cluster  of  alders. 

I  went  into  the  grounds  with  my  heart  very  high 
up  on  my  bosom,  not  much  put  about  at  any 
human  danger,  let  me  add,  for  an  encounter  with 
an  enemy  of  flesh  and  blood  was  a  less  fearsome 
prospect  than  the  chance  of  an  encounter  with 
more  invulnerable  foes,  who,  my  skin  told  me, 
haunted  every  heugh  and  howe  of  that  still  and 
sombre  demesne  of  Dalness.  But  I  set  my  teeth 
tight  in  my  resolution,  and  with  my  dirk  drawn  in 
my  hand  —  it  w'as  the  only  weapon  left  mc  —  I 
crept  over  the  grass  from  bush  to  bush  and  tree  to 
tree  as  much  out  of  the  revelation  of  the  window- 
lights  as  their  numbers  would  let  me. 

There  was  not  a  sound  in  the  place,  and  yet 
those  lights  might  have  betokened  a  great  festivity. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  319 

with  pipe  and  harp  going,  and  dancers'  feet  thud- 
ding on  the  floor. 

At  one  of  the  gables  there  was  a  low  window, 
and  I  made  for  it,  thinking  it  a  possible  eye  to 
a  lobby  or  passage,  and  therefore  not  so  hazard- 
ous to  look  in  at.  I  crept  up  and  viewed  the 
interior. 

My  window,  to  my  astonishment,  looked  in  on 
no  bare  plain  lobby,  but  on  a  spacious  salmanger 
or  hall,  very  rosy  with  sconce-light  and  wood-fire 
—  a  hall  that  extended  the  whole  length  of  the 
house,  with  a  bye-ordinar  high  ceil  of  black  oak 
carved  very  handsomely.  The  walls  at  the  far  end 
were  hung  with  tapestry  very  like  MacCailein's 
rooms  at  home  in  Inneraora;  and  down  the  long 
sides,  whose  windows  streamed  the  light  upon  the 
hall,  great  stag-heads  glowered  with  unsleeping 
eyes,  stags  of  numerous  tines.  The  floor  was 
strewn  with  the  skins  of  the  chase,  and  on  the 
centre  of  it  was  a  table  laden  with  an  untouched 
meal,  and  bottles  that  winked  back  the  flicker  of 
the  candle  and  the  hearth. 

The  comfort  of  the  place,  by  contrast  with  our 
situation,  seemed,  as  I  looked  hungrily  on  it 
through  the  thick  glass  of  the  lozen,  more  great 
and  tempting  than  anything  ever  I  saw  abroad  in 
the  domains  of  princes.  Its  air  was  charged  with 
peace  and  order;  the  little  puffs  and  coils  and 
wisps  of  silver-gray  smoke,  coming  out  of  the  fire- 
place into  the  room,  took  long  to  swoon  into 
nothingness  in  that  tranquil  interior. 

But  the  most  wonderful  thing  of  all  was,  that 


320  JOHN   SPLENDID 

though  the  supper  seemed  ready  waiting  for  a 
company,  and  could  not  have  been  long  left,  I 
waited  five  or  ten  minutes  with  my  face  fast  set  to 
the  pane  and  no  living  footstep  entered  the  room. 
I  watched  the  larger  door  near  the  far-off  end 
eagerly ;  it  lay  ajar,  smiling  a  welcome  to  the  parts 
of  the  house  beyond,  but  no  one  came  in. 

"  Surely  they  are  throng  in  some  other  wing,"  I 
thought,  "  and  not  so  hungry  as  we,  or  their  viands 
did  not  lie  so  long  untouched  in  that  dainty 
room." 

I  went  round  the  house  at  its  rear,  feeling  my 
way  slowly  among  the  bushes.  I  looked  upon 
parlours  and  bed-closets,  kitchens  and  corridors ; 
they  were  lighted  with  the  extravagance  of  a  mar- 
riage-night, and  as  tenantless  and  silent  as  the 
cells  of  Kilchrist.  The  beds  were  straightened 
out,  the  hearths  were  swept,  the  floors  were 
scrubbed,  on  every  hand  was  the  evidence  of 
recent  business,  but  the  place  was  relinquished  to 
the  ghosts. 

How  it  was  I  cannot  say,  but  the  mj-stery  of  the 
house  made  me  giddy  at  the  head.  But  I  was 
bound  to  push  my  searching  further,  so  round 
with  a  swithering  heart  went  Elrigmore  to  the  very 
front  door  of  the  mansion  of  Dalness  —  open,  as  T 
have  said,  with  the  light  gushing  lemon-yellow  on 
the  lawn.  I  tapped  softly,  my  heart  this  time 
even  higher  than  my  bosom,  with  a  foot  back 
ready  to  retreat  if  answer  came.  Then  T  rasped 
an  alarm  on  the  side  of  the  yctt  with  a  noise  that 
rang  fiercely  through  the  place  and  brought  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  321 

sweat  to   my  body,  but  there  was  even  then  no 
answer. 

So  in  I  went,  the  soft  soles  of  my  brogues 
making  no  sound  on  the  boards,  but  leaving  the 
impress  of  my  footsteps  in  a  damp  blot. 

Now,  to  me,  brought  up  in  a  Highland  farm- 
steading  (for  the  house  of  Elrigmore  is  without 
great  spaciousness  or  pretence),  large  and  ram- 
bling castles  and  mansions  ever  seem  eerie.  I 
must  in  them  be  thinking,  like  any  boy,  of  the 
whisperings  of  wraiths  in  their  remote  upper 
rooms;  I  feel  strange  airs  come  whipping  up 
their  long  or  crooked  lobbies  at  night;  the  num- 
ber of  their  doors  are,  to  my  Highland  instinct, 
so  many  unnecessary  entrances  for  enemies  and 
things  mischancy. 

But  to  wander  over  the  house  of  Dalness,  lit 
from  tolbooth  to  garret  with  lowc  —  to  see  the  fires 
not  green  but  at  their  prime  with  high-banked 
peat  that  as  yet  had  not  thrown  an  ash  —  to  see  so 
fine  a  supper  waiting  in  a  mansion  utterly  desolate 
and  its  doors  open  to  the  wilds,  seemed  a  thing  so 
magical  that  I  felt  like  taking  my  feet  from  the 
place  in  a  hurry  of  hurries  and  fleeing  with  my 
comrades  from  so  unco  a  countryside.  High  and 
low  I  ranged  in  the  interior.  I  had  found  a  nut 
without  a  kernel,  and  at  last  I  stood  dumfoundcrcd 
and  afraid,  struck  solemn  by  the  echo  of  my  own 
hail  as  it  rang  unfamiliar  through  the  interior. 

I  might  have  been  there  fifteen  minutes  or  half 
an  hour  when  M'lver,  impatient  at  my  delay  or 
fearing  some  injury  to   my  person,  came  in  and 


322  JOHN   SPLENDID 

joined  me.  He  too  was  struck  with  amazement  at 
the  desertion  of  the  house.  He  measured  the  can- 
dles, he  scrutinised  the  fires,  he  went  round  the 
building  out  and  in,  and  he  could  but  conclude 
that  we  must  be  close  upon  the  gate  when  the 
house  was  abandoned. 

"  But  why  abandon  it?  "  I  asked. 
"  That 's  the  Skyman's  puzzle ;  it  would  take 
seven  men  and  seven  years  to  answer  it,"  said  he. 
"  I  can  only  say  it 's  very  good  of  them  (if  there  's 
no  ambuscade  in  it)  to  leave  so  fine  an  inn  and  so 
bonny  a  supper  with  a  bush  above  the  door  and 
never  a  bar  against  entrance.  We  '11  just  take 
advantage  of  what  fortune  has  sent  us." 

"  The  sooner  the  better,"  said  I,  standing  up  to 
a  fire  that  delighted  my  body  like  a  caress.  "  I 
have  a  trick  of  knowing  when  good  fortune  's  a 
dream,  and  I  '11  be  awake  and  find  myself  lying  on 
hard  heather  before  the  bite  's  at  my  mouth." 

M'lvcr  ran  out  and  brought  in  our  companions, 
none  of  them  unwilling  to  put  this  strange  free 
hostel  to  the  test  for  its  warmth  and  hospitality. 
We  shut  and  barred  the  doors,  and  set  ourselves 
down  to  such  a  cold  collation  as  the  most  fortunate 
of  us  had  not  tasted  since  the  little  wars  began. 
Between  the  savage  and  the  gentleman  is  but  a 
good  night's  lodging.  Give  the  savage  a  peaceful 
hearth  to  sit  by,  a  roof  to  his  head,  and  a  copious 
well-cooked  supper,  and  his  savagery  will  surren- 
der itself  to  the  sleek  content  of  a  Dutch  merchant- 
man. We  sat  at  a  table  whose  load  would  have 
rationed  a  company  of  twice  our  number,  and  I 


JOHN   SPLENDID  323 

could  see  the  hard  look  of  hunting  relax  in  the 
aspect  of  us  all :  the  peering,  restless  sunken  eyes 
came  out  of  their  furrowed  caverns,  turned  calm, 
full,  and  satisfied  ;  the  lines  of  the  brow  and  mouth, 
the  contour  of  the  cheek,  the  carriage  of  the  head, 
the  disposition  of  the  hands,  altered  and  improved. 
An  hour  ago,  when  we  were  the  sport  of  ferocious 
nature  in  the  heart  of  a  country  infernal,  no  more 
than  one  of  us  would  have  swithered  to  strike  a 
blow  at  a  fellow-creature  and  to  have  robbed  his 
corpse  of  what  it  might  have  of  food  and  comfort. 
Now  we  gloated  in  the  airs  benign  of  Dalness  house, 
very  friendly  to  the  world  at  large,  the  stuff  that 
tranquil  towns  are  made  of.  We  had  even  the 
minister's  blessing  on  our  food,  for  Master  Gordon 
accepted  the  miracle  of  the  open  door  and  the 
vacant  dwelling  with  John  Splendid's  philosophy, 
assuring  us  that  in  doing  so  he  did  no  more  than 
he  would  willingly  concede  any  harmless  body  of 
broken  men  such  as  we  were,  even  his  direst 
enemies,  if  extremity  like  ours  brought  us  to  his 
neighbourhood. 

"  I  confess  I  am  curious  to  know  how  the  thing 
happened,  but  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  's  in  it 
anyway,"  he  said  ;  and  so  saying  he  lay  back  in 
his  chair  with  a  sigh  of  satisfaction  that  lost  noth- 
ing of  its  zest  by  the  influence  of  the  rain  that 
blattered  now  in  drumming"  violence  on  the  window- 
panes. 

John  Splendid,  at  the  table-end,  laughed  shortly 
between  his  cups  at  a  flagon  of  wine. 

"  All  the  same,"  said  he,   "  I  would   advise  you 


324  JOHN    SPLENDID 

to  put  some  of  the  Almighty's  provand  in  your 
pouch,  for  fear  the  grace  that  is  ours  now  may  be 
torn  suddenly  enough  from  us." 

Sonachan  pointed  at  Stewart,  who  had  already 
filled  every  part  of  his  garments  with  broken  meat, 
and  his  wallet  as  well.  "  There  's  a  cautious  man," 
said  he,  "  whatever  your  notion  of  sudden  ceasing 
may  be.  He  has  been  putting  bite  about  in  his 
wallet  and  his  stomach  since  ever  we  sat  down. 
Appin  ways,  no  doubt." 

"■  Biadh  1X71  diiigh,  cogadJi  a  mair-eacJi  —  food 
to-day,  war  to-morrow,"  said  the  son  of  kings. 
"  Royal  's  my  race  !  A  man  should  aye  be  laying 
in  as  he  goes :  if  I  had  not  had  my  wallet  on  Loch 
Leven-side,  I  ken  some  gentry  who  would  have 
been  as  hungry  as  common  herds,  and  with  nothing 
to  help  it." 

John  Splendid  laughed  again.  "  Wise  man, 
Rob!"  said  he;  "you  learnt  the  first  principles 
of  campaigning  in  Appin  as  nicely  as  ever  I  did  in 
the  wars  of  the  Invincible  Lion  (as  they  called  him) 
of  the  North.  Our  reverend  comrade  here,  by  the 
wisdom  of  his  books,  never  questions,  it  seems, 
that  we  have  a  leave  of  Dalncss  house  as  long  as 
we  like  to  stay  in  it,  its  pendicles  and  pertinents, 
lofts,  crofts,  gardens,  mills,  multures,  and  sequels, 
as  the  lawyers  say  in  their  damned  sheepskins, 
that  have  been  the  curse  of  the  Highlands  even 
more  than  books  have  been.  Now  I  've  had  an 
adventure  like  this  before.  Once  in  Rugenwalde, 
midway  between  Danzig  and  Stettin,  where  we  lay 
for  two  months,  I  spent  a  night  with  a  company  of 


JOHN   SPLENDID  325 

Hepburn's  blades  in  a  castle  abandoned  by  the 
Duke  of  Pomerania.  Roystering  dogs !  Stout 
hearts !  Where  are  they  now,  those  fine  lads  in 
corslet  and  morgensterne,  who  played  havoc  with 
the  casks  in  the  Rugenwalde  cellar?  Some  of  them 
died  of  the  pest  in  Schiefelbein,  four  of  them  fell 
under  old  Jock  Hepburn  at  Frankfort,  the  lave 
went  wandering  about  the  world,  kissing  and 
drinking,  no  doubt,  and  lying  and  sorrowing  and 
dying,  and  never  again  will  we  foregather  in  a 
vacant  house  in  foreign  parts !  For  that  is  the 
hardship  of  life,  that  it 's  ever  a  flux  and  change. 
We  are  here  to-day  and  away  to-morrow,  and  the 
bigger  the  company  and  the  more  high-hearted 
the  merriment,  the  less  likely  is  the  experience  to 
be  repeated.  I  'm  sitting  here  in  a  miraculous 
dwelling  in  the  land  of  Lorn,  and  I  have  but  to 
shut  my  eyes  and  round  about  me  are  cavaliers  of 
fortune  at  the  board.  I  give  you  the  old  word, 
Elrigmore :  '  Claymore  and  the  Gael ' ;  for  the 
rest  —  pardon  me  —  you  gentlemen  are  out  of  the 
ploy.  I  shut  my  eyes  and  I  see  Fowlis  and  Far- 
quhar,  Mackenzie,  Obisdell,  Ross,  the  two  balbircn 
and  stabknechten,  with  their  legs  about  the  board ; 
the  wind  's  howling  up  from  Stettin  road ;  to-mor- 
row we  may  be  carrion  in  the  ditch  at  Gubcn's 
Gate,  or  wounded  to  a  death  by  slow  degrees  in 
night  scaladoe.    That  was  soldiering.     You  fought 

your   equals   with   art   and    science;     here's 

Well,  well,  God's  grace  for  MacCailein  Mor !  " 

"  God's  grace  for  us  all !  "  said  the  minister. 

The  man  with  the  want  fell  fast  asleep   in   his 


326  JOHN   SPLENDID 

chair,  with  his  Hmbs  in  gawky  disposition.  Stew- 
art's bullet-head,  with  the  line  of  the  oval,  unbroken 
by  ears,  bobbed  with  affected  eagerness  to  keep 
up  with  the  fast  English  utterance  and  the  foreign 
names  of  M'lver,  while  all  the  time  he  was  finger- 
ing some  metal  spoons  and  wondering  if  money 
was  in  them  and  if  they  could  be  safely  got  to 
Inneraora.  Sonachan  and  the  baron-bailie  dipped 
their  beaks  in  the  jugs,  and  with  lifted  heads,  as 
fowls  slocken  their  thirst,  they  let  the  wine  slip 
slowly  down  their  throats,  glucking  in  a  gluttonous 
ecstasy. 

"  God's  grace  for  us  all !  "  said  the  minister 
again,  as  in  a  benediction. 

M'lver  pushed  back  his  chair  without  rising, 
and  threw  a  leg  across  its  arm  with  a  complacent 
look  at  the  shapely  round  of  the  calf,  that  his  hose 
still  fitted  with  wonderful  neatness  considering  the 
stress  they  must  have  had  from  wind  and  rain. 

"  We  had  grace  indeed,"  said  he,  "  on  the  banks 
of  Oder  River.  We  came  at  night,  just  as  now, 
upon  this  castle  of  the  cousin  of  this  most  noble 
and  puissant  lord  of  Pomerania.  It  was  Palm 
Sunday,  April  the  third.  Old  Style.  I  mind, 
because  it  was  my  birthday;  the  country  all  about 
was  bursting  out  in  a  most  rare  green  ;  the  gardens 
and  fields  breathed  sappy  odours,  and  the  birds 
were  throng  at  the  bigging  of  their  homes  in  bush 
and  eave;  the  day  sparkled,  and  river  and  cloud 
too,  till  the  spirit  in  a  person  jigged  as  to  a  fiddle ; 
the  nights  allured  to  escapade." 

"What  was  the  girl's  name?"  I  asked  M'lver, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  327 

leaning  forward,  finding  his  story  in  some  degree 
had  parallel  with  my  own. 

"  Her  name,  Colin  —  I  did  not  mention  the  girl, 
did  I?  How  did  you  guess  there  was  a  girl  in  it?" 
said  John,  perplexed. 

I  flushed  at  my  own  transparency,  and  was  glad 
to  see  that  none  but  the  minister  (and  M'lver  a 
little  later)  had  observed  the  confession  of  my 
query.  The  others  were  too  busy  on  carnal  appe- 
tites to  feel  the  touch  of  a  sentiment  wrung  from 
me  by  a  moment's  illusion. 

"  It  is  only  my  joke,"  I  stammered  ;  "you  have  a 
reputation  among  the  snoods." 

M'lver  smiled  on  me  very  warm-heartedly,  yet 
cunningly  too. 

"  Colin,  Colin,"  he  cried.  "  Do  I  not  know 
yoii.  from  boot  to  bonnet?  You  think  the  spring 
seasons  are  never  so  fond  and  magic  as  when  a 
man  is  courting  a  girl;  you  are  minding  of  some 
spring  day  of  your  own  and  a  night  of  twinkling 
stars.  I  '11  not  deny  but  there  was  a  girl  in  my  case 
in  the  parlour  of  Pomerania's  cousin  at  Frankfort- 
on-the-Oder ;  and  I  '11  not  deny  that  a  recollection 
of  her  endows  that  season  with  something  of  its 
charm.  We  had  ventured  into  this  vacant  house, 
as  I  have  said ;  its  larders  were  well  plenished ;  its 
vaults  were  full  of  marshalled  brigades  of  bottles 
and  battaglia  of  casks.  Thinking  no  danger, 
perhaps  careless  if  there  was,  we  sat  late,  feasted 
to  the  full,  and  drank  deep  in  a  house  that  like 
this  was  empty  in  every  part.  It  was  163 1  — I  '11 
leave  you  but  that  clue  to  my  age  at  the  time  — 


328  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and,  well  I  was  an  even  prettier  lad  than  I  am 
to-day.  I  see  you  smile,  Master  Gordon ;  but 
that 's  my  bit  joke.  Still  there  's  some  relevance 
to  my  story  in  my  looks  too.  Though  I  was  but 
a  sergeant  of  pikes  (with  sons  of  good  families 
below  me,  as  privates,  mind  you),  I  was  very 
trim  and  particular  about  my  apparel.  I  carried 
myself  with  a  good  chest,  as  we  say,  —  my  feature 
and  my  leg  speak  for  themselves.  I  had  sung 
songs  —  trifles  of  my  own,  foolishly  esteemed, 
I  'm  hearing,  in  many  parts  of  Argile.  I  '11 
not  deny  but  I  like  to  think  of  that,  and  to  fancy 
young  folks  humming  my  ditties  by  warm  fires 
when  I  'm  maybe  in  the  cold  with  the  divot  at  my 
mouth.  And  I  had  told  a  tale  or  two  —  a  poor 
art  enough,  I'll  allow,  spoiled  by  bookcraft.  It 
was  a  cheery  company  as  you  may  guess,  and  at 
last  I  was  at  a  display  of  our  Highland  dancing. 
I  see  dancing  to-day  in  many  places  that  is  not  the 
thing  as  I  was  taught  it  by  the  strongest  dancer  in 
all  Albainn.  The  company  sat  facing  as  I  stepped 
it  over  a  couple  of  sword-bladcs,  and  their  backs 
were  to  the  door.  Mackenzie  was  humming  a 
port-a  bJicul  with  a  North  Country  twang  even  in 
his  nose,  and  I  was  at  my  last  step  when  the  door 
opened  with  no  noise  and  a  girl  looked  in,  her 
eyes  staring  hard  at  me  alone,  and  a  finger  on  her 
lips  for  silence.  A  man  of  less  discernment  would 
have  stopped  his  dance  incontinent  and  betrayed 
the  presence  of  the  lady  to  the  others,  who  never 
dreamt  so  interesting  sight  was  behind  them.  But 
I   never  let  on.     I  even  put  an  extra  flourish  on 


JOHN    SPLENDID  329 

my  conclusion,  that  came  just  as  the  girl  backed 
out  at  the  door  beckoning  me  to  follow  her.  Two 
minutes  later,  while  my  friends  were  bellowing  a 
rough  Gaelic  chorus,  I  was  out  following  my  lady 
of  silence  up  a  little  stair  and  into  a  room  below 
the  eaves.  There  she  narrated  to  me  the  plot  that 
we  unhappy  lads  were  to  be  the  victims  of.  The 
house  was  a  trap;  it  was  to  be  surrounded  at 
night,  when  we  had  eaten  and  drunken  over-well, 
and  the  sword  was  our  doom  arranged  for.  The 
girl  told  me  all  this  very  quietly  in  the  French  she 
learned  I  was  best  master  of  next  to  my  own  Gaelic, 
and  —  what  a  mad  thing's  the  blood  in  a  youth  — 
all  the  time  I  was  indifferent  to  her  alarum,  and 
pondering  upon  her  charms  of  lip  and  eye.  She 
died  a  twelvemonth  later  in  Glogoe  of  Silesia, 
and God  give  her  peace  !  " 

"  You  may  save  your  supplication,"  said  Gor- 
don ;  "  her  portion 's  assigned,  a  thing  fixed  and 
unalterable,  and  your  prayer  is  a  Popish  conceit." 

"  God  give  her  peace  !  I  '11  say  it,  Master  Gor- 
don, and  I  '11  wish  it  in  the  face  of  every  Cove- 
nanter ever  droned  a  psalm  !  She  died  in  Silesia, 
not  careless,  I'm  thinking,  of  the  memory  of  one 
or  two  weeks  we  spent  in  Frankfort,  whose  outer 
lanes  and  faubourgs  are  in  my  recollection  blos- 
soming with  the  almond-flower  and  scented  at  eve." 

He  rose  to  his  feet  and  paced  the  floor  beside 
us,  strong,  but  loosened  a  little  at  the  tongue  by 
the  generous  wine  of  Dalness  ;  his  mien  a  blending 
of  defiance  against  the  cheatry  of  circumstances 
and  a  display  of  old  ancient  grief 


330  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"  Heart  of  the  rose,  grauiachrcc,  bird-song  at  the 
lip,  star-eye  and  wisdom,  yet  woman  to  the  core. 
I  wish  I  were  so  young  as  then  I  was,  and  oc/iaiiic, 
what  availed  my  teens,  if  the  one  woman  that  ever 
understood  me  were  no  more  but  a  dust  in 
Glogoe  !  " 

"  Come,  come,  man,"  I  cried  ;  "  it 's  a  world  full 
of  very  choice  women." 

"  Is  it  indeed  ?  "  asked  he,  turning  on  me  a  pitiful 
eye ;   "  I  'm  wrong  if  you  ever  met  but  one  that  was 

quite  so  fine  as  you  must  have  them Tuts,  tuts, 

here  I  'm  on  the  key  of  old  man's  history.  I  cheat 
myself  at  times  of  leisure  into  the  notion  that  once 
I  loved  a  foreign  girl  who  died  a  spotless  maiden. 
You  '11  notice.  Master  Gordon,  I  have  something 
of  the  sentiment  you  Lowlanders  make  such  show 
of,  or  I  play-act  the  thing  very  well.  Believe  me, 
I  '11  hope  to  get  a  wife  out  of  your  parish  some  day 
yet ;  but  I  warn  you  she  must  have  a  tocher  in  her 
stocking  as  well  as  on  her  father's  hill." 

The  minister  surveyed  him  through  half-shut 
eyes,  leaning  back  on  the  rungs  of  his  chair.  I 
think  he  saw  the  truth  as  clearly  as  I  did  myself, 
for  he  spoke  with  more  than  common  softness 
when  he  answered. 

"  I  like  your  tale,"  he  said,  "  which  had  a  different 
conclusion  and  a  more  noble  one  than  what  I 
looked  for  at  the  opening."  Then  he  leaned  out 
and  put  a  hand  on  John  Splendid's  sleeve. 
"  Human  nature,"  said  he,  "  is  the  most  baffling  of 
mysteries.  I  said  I  knew  you  from  boot  to  bon- 
net, but  there  's  a  corner  I  have  still  to  learn  the 
secret  of" 


JOHN    SPLENDID  331 

"  Well,  well,"  cried  M'lvcr,  lifting  a  glass  con- 
fusedly, and  seating  himself  again  at  the  board, 
"  here  's  a  night-cap  —  MacCailein  Mor  and  the 
Campbell  cause  !  "  "  And  a  thought  of  the  lady 
of  Frankfort,"  I  whispered,  pressing  his  foot  with 
my  toe  beneath  the  table,  and  clinking  my  glass 
with  his. 

We  drank,  the  two  of  us,  in  a  silence,  and  threw 
the  glasses  on  the  hearth. 

The  windows,  that  now  were  shuttered,  rattled 
to  gowsty  airs,  and  the  rain  drummed  on.  All 
about  the  house,  with  its  numerous  corners,  turrets, 
gushets,  and  corbie-stepped  gables,  the  fury  of  the 
world  rose  and  wandered,  the  fury  that  never  rests 
but  is  ever  somewhere  round  the  ancient  universe, 
jibing  night  and  morning  at  man's  most  valiant 
effort.  It  might  spit  and  blow  till  our  shell  shook 
and  creaked,  and  the  staunch  walls  wept,  and  the 
garden  footways  ran  with  bubbling  waters,  but  we 
were  still  to  conquer.  Our  lanthorn  gleamed 
defiance  to  that  brag  of  night  eternal,  that  pattern- 
piece  of  the  last  triumph  of  the  oldest  enemy  of 
man  —  Blackness  the  Rider,  who  is  older  than  the 
hoary  star. 

Fresh  wood  hissed  on  the  fire,  but  the  candles 
burned  low  in  their  sockets.  Sonachan  and  the 
baron-bailie  slept  with  their  heads  on  the  table ; 
and  the  man  with  the  want,  still  sodden  at  the  eyes, 
turned  his  wet  hose  upon  his  feet  with  a  madman's 
notion  of  comfort. 

"  I  hope,"  said  MTver,  "there's  no  ambuscade 
here,  as  in  the  house  of  the  cousin  of  his  Grace  of 


332  JOHN    SPLENDID 

Pomerania.  At  least  we  can  but  bide  on,  whatever 
comes,  and  take  the  night's  rest  that  offers,  keep- 
ing a  man-about  watch  against    intrusion." 

"  There 's  a  watch  more  pressing  still,"  said 
Master  Gordon,  shaking  the  slumber  off  him  and 
jogging  the  sleeping  men  upon  the  shoulders. 
"  My  soul  watcheth  for  the  Lord  more  than  they 
that  watch  for  the  morning.  We  have  been  wet 
with  the  showers  of  the  mountain,  like  Job,  and 
embracing  the  rock  for  the  want  of  a  shelter.  We 
are  lone-haunted  men  in  a  wild  land  encompassed 
by  enemies;  let  us  thank  God  for  our  safety  thus 
far,  and  ask  His  continued  shield  upon  our  flight." 

And  in  the  silence  of  that  great  house,  dripping 
and  rocking  in  the  tempest  of  the  night,  the  min- 
ister poured  out  his  heart  in  prayer.  It  had 
humility  and  courage  too;  it  was  imbued  with  a 
spirit  strong  and  calm.  For  the  first  time  my 
heart  warmed  to  the  man  who  in  years  after  was 
my  friend  and  mentor  —  Alexander  Gordon,  Mas- 
ter of  the  Arts,  the  man  who  wedded  me  and  gave 
my  children  Christian  baptism,  and  brought  solace 
in  the  train  of  those  little  ones  lost  for  a  space  to 
me  among  the  grasses  and  flowers  of  Kilmalieu. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  333 


CHAPTER   XXV 

It  may  seem,  in  my  recounting  of  these  cold  wan- 
derings, of  days  and  nights  with  nothing  but  snow 
and  rain,  and  always  the  hounds  of  fear  on  every 
hand,  that  I  had  forgotten  to  exercise  my  mind 
upon  the  blunder  and  the  shame  of  Argile's  defeat 
at  Inverlochy.  So  far  is  this  from  the  fact  that 
M'lver  and  I  on  many  available  occasions  disputed 
—  as  old  men  at  the  trade  of  arms  will  do  —  the 
reasons  of  a  reverse  so  much  unexpected,  so  little 
to  be  condoned,  considering  the  advantage  we 
had  in  numbers  compared  with  the  fragments  of 
clans  Alasdair  MacDonald  brought  down  from 
the  gorges  of  Lochaber  to  the  waters  of  Loch 
Linnhe  and  Locheil.  It  was  useless  to  bring 
either  the  baron-bailie  or  Sonachan  into  our  delib- 
erations ;  neither  of  them  had  any  idea  of  how  the 
thing  had  happened,  though  they  were  very  well  in- 
formed indeed  about  certain  trivial  departures  from 
strict  forms  of  Highland  procedure  in  the  hurried 
marshalling  of  the  troops. 

"  Cheap  trash  of  pcnnyland  men  from  Lochow- 
side  were  put  on  the  right  of  gentlemen  cadets  of 
the  castle  and  Loch  Finne-side  lairds,"  was  the 
baron-bailie's  bitter  protestation. 

Sonachan,  who  was  naturally  possessed  of  a 
warm  side  to  the  people,  even  common  quality, 


334  JOHN   SPLENDID 

of  his  own  part  of  the  country,  would  sniff  at  this 
with  some  scorn. 

"  Pennyland  here,  pennyland  there,  they  were 
closer  in  blood  on  Black  Duncan  than  any  of  your 
shore-side  partans,  who  may  be  gcntrice  by  sheep- 
skin right  but  never  by  the  glaive." 

So  the  two  would  be  off  again  into  the  tangle- 
ments  of  Highland   pedigree. 

The  mind  of  the  man  with  the  want  was,  of 
course,  a  vacant  tablet,  washed  clean  of  every  rec- 
ollection by  the  copious  tears  he  had  wept  in  his 
silliness  since  ever  the  shock  of  the  battle  came  on 
him ;  Stewart  was  so  much  of  an  unscrupulous 
liar  that  no  word  of  his  could  be  trusted,  and  the 
minister  alone  could  give  us  any  idea  of  what  had 
been  the  sentiment  in  the  army  when  the  men  of 
Montrose  (who  were  really  the  men  of  Sir  Alas- 
dair,  his  major-general)  came  on  them.  But  for 
reasons  every  true  Gael  need  not  even  have  a 
hint  of,  we  were  averse  from  querying  this  dour, 
sour  Lowland  cleric  on  points  affecting  a  Highland 
retreat. 

So  it  was,  I  say,  that  the  deliberations  of  M'lver 
and  myself  were  without  any  outside  light  in  some- 
what dark  quarters;  we  had  to  guide  us  only  yon 
momentary  glimpse  of  the  stricken  field  witli  its 
flying  men,  seen  in  a  stupid  blur  of  the  senses,  as 
one  lying  by  a  dark  hill  tarn  at  night  waiting  for 
mallard  or  teal,  sees  the  birds  wheeling  above  the 
water  ere  he  has  appreciated  the  whirr  of  their 
presence,  lets  bang  his  piece  at  the  midst  of  them, 
and  is  in  a  dense  stillness  again  before  he  comprc- 


JOHN    SPLENDID  335 

hends  that  what  he  has  waited  for  in  the  cold  night 
has  happened. 

"  The  plan  of  old  Gustavus  did  it,  I  '11  wager  my 
share  of  the  silver-mine,"  would  John  insist;  "and 
who  in  heaven's  name  would  think  Alasdair  DiosacJi 
knew  the  trick  of  it?  I  saw  his  horsemen  fire  one 
pistol-shot  and  fall  on  at  full  speed.  That 's  old 
Gustavus  for  you,  isn't  it?  And  yet,''  he  would 
continue,  reflecting,  "  Auchinbrcck  knew  the 
Swedish  tactics,  too.  He  had  his  musketeers  and 
pikemen  separate,  as  the  later  laws  demand ;  he 
had  even  a  hint  from  myself  of  the  due  proportion 
of  two  pikes  to  three  muskets." 

"But  never  a  platoon  fired  a  volley,"  I  recalled. 
"  It  was  to  steel  and  targe  from  the  onset."  And 
then  I  would  add,  "  What 's  to  be  said  for 
MacCailein?  " 

On  this  John  Splendid  would  ruffle  up  wrothily 
with  blame  for  my  harping  on  that  incident,  as  if 
it  were  a  crime  to  hint  at  any  weakness  in  his  chief. 

"  You  are  very  much  afraid  of  a  waff  of  wind 
blowing  on  your  cousin's  name,"  I  would  cry. 

"  My  chief,  Elrigmore,  my  chief.  I  make  no 
claim  to  consideration  for  a  cousin,  but  I  '11  stand 
up  for  Argile's  name  so  long  as  the  gyrony  of 
eight  and  the  galley  for  Lorn  are  in  his  coat  of 
arms." 

Inverlochy,  Inverlochy,  Invcrlochy  —  the  black 
name  of  it  rang  in  my  head  like  a  tolling  bell  as  I 
sought  to  doze  for  a  little  in  Dalness  house.  The 
whole  events  of  the  scandalous  week  piled  up  on 
me ;   I  no  sooner  wandered  one  thought  away  in 


336  JOHN   SPLENDID 

the  mists  of  the  nether  mind  than  a  new  one, 
definite  and  harassing,  grew  in  its  place,  so  that  I 
was  turning  from  side  to  side  in  a  torture-rack  of 
reflection  when  I  should  be  lost  in  the  slumber 
my  travel  and  weariness  so  well  had  earned  me. 
Something  of  an  eeriness  at  our  position  in  that 
genteel  but  lonely  house  lay  heavy  on  me,  too ;  it 
had  no  memories  of  friendship  in  any  room  for 
me;  it  was  haunted,  if  haunted  at  all,  with  the 
ghosts  of  people  whose  names  we  onl}'  breathed 
with  bitterness  in  the  shire  of  Argile.  And  con- 
stantly the  wind  would  be  howling  in  it,  piping 
dismally  in  the  vent  of  the  room  the  minister  and 
I  were  in  together ;  constant  the  rain  would  be 
hissing  on  the  embers  of  the  fire  ;  at  a  long  distance 
off  a  waterfall,  in  veering  gusts  of  greater  vehe- 
mence, crashed  among  its  rocks  and  thundered  in 
its  linn. 

M'lver,  who  was  the  first  to  take  watch  for  the 
night,  paced  back  and  forth  along  the  lobbies  or 
stood  to  warm  himself  at  the  fire  he  fed  at  intervals 
with  peat  or  pine-root.  Though  he  had  a  soldier's 
reverence  for  the  slumbers  of  his  comrades,  and 
made  the  least  of  noise  as  he  moved  around  in  his 
deer-skins,  the  slightest  movement  so  advertised 
his  zeal,  and  so  clearly  recalled  the  precariousncss 
of  our  position,  that  I  could  not  sleep.  In  an  hour 
or  more  after  I  lay  down  —  with  my  clothing  still 
on,  I  need  hardly  say  —  M'lver  alarmed  the  ad- 
vance-guard of  my  coming  sleep  by  his  uncon- 
scious whistle  of  a  pibroch,  and  I  sat  up  to  find 
that  the  cleric  was  sharing  my  waukrife  rest.     He 


JOHN    SPLENDID  337 

had  cast  his  peruke.  In  the  light  of  a  cruisie  that 
hung  at  the  mantel-breast  he  was  a  comical-look- 
ing fellow  with  a  high  bald  head,  and  his  eyes,  that 
were  very  dark  and  profound,  surrounded  by  the 
red  rings  of  weariness,  all  the  redder  for  the  pallor 
of  his  face.  He  stretched  his  legs  and  rubbed  his 
knees  slowly,  and  smiled  on  me  a  little  mournfully. 

"  I  'm  a  poor  campaigner,"  said  he ;  "I  ought 
to  be  making  the  best  of  the  chance  we  have ;  but 
instead  I  must  be  thinking  of  my  master  and  patron, 
and  about  my  flock  in  Inneraora  town." 

I  seized  the  opportunity  as  a  gled  would  jump 
at  a  dove. 

"  You  're  no  worse  than  myself,"  I  said,  rising  to 
poke  up  the  fire ;  "  I  'm  thinking  of  Argile,  too, 
and  I  wish  I  could  get  his  defalcation  —  if  that 
it  may  be  called — out  of  my  mind.  Was  it  a — • 
was  it  —  what  you  might  call  a  desertion  without 
dignity,  or  a  step  with  half  an  excuse  in  policy? 
I  know  MacCailein  had  an  injured  arm." 

Gordon  rose  and  joined  me  at  the  fireside.  He 
seemed  in  a  swither  as  to  whether  I  was  a  fit  con- 
fidant or  not  in  such  a  matter,  but  at  last  would 
appear  to  decide  in  my  favour. 

"  You  have  heard  me  speak  well  of  Argile,"  he 
said,  quietly.  "  I  never  said  a  word  in  his  praise 
that  was  not  deserved ;  indeed,  I  have  been  limited 
in  my  valuation  of  his  virtues  and  ornaments,  lest 
they  should  think  it  the  paid  chaplain  who  spoke 
and  not  the  honest  acquaintance.  1  know  pious 
men.  Highland  and  Lowland,  but  my  lord  of 
Argile  has  more  than  any  of  them  the  qualities  of 


338  JOHN   SPLENDID 

perfection.  At  home  yonder,  he  rises  every  morn- 
ing at  five  and  is  in  private  till  eight.  He  prays 
in  his  household  night  and  morning,  and  never 
went  abroad,  though  but  for  one  night,  but  he 
took  his  vvrite-book,  standish,  and  English  New 
Bible,  and  Newman's  Concordance  with  him.  Last 
summer,  playing  one  day  with  the  bullats  with  some 
gentlemen,  one  of  them,  when  the  Marquis  stopped 
to  lift  his  bullat,  fell  pale,  and  said  to  them  about 
him,  '  Bless  me,  it  is  that  I  see  my  lord  with  his 
head  off  and  all  his  shoulder  full  of  blood.'  A 
wicked  man  would  have  counted  that  the  most 
gloomy  portent  and  a  fit  occasion  for  dread,  for 
the  person  who  spoke  was  the  Laird  of  Drimmin- 
dorren's  seventh  son,  with  a  reputation  for  the 
second  sight.  But  Argile  laughed  at  the  thing,  no 
way  alarmed,  and  then  with  a  grave  demeanour  he 
said,  said  he,  'The  wine's  in  your  head,  sir;  and 
even  if  it  was  an  omen,  what  then?  The  axe  in 
troublous  times  is  no  disgrace,  and  a  chief  of  Clan 
Diarmaid  would  be  a  poor  chief  indeed  if  he  failed 
to  surrender  his  head  with  some  show  of  dignity.'  " 

"  But  to  leave  his  people  twice  in  one  war  with 
no  apparent  valid  excuse  must  look  odd  to  his 
unfriends,"  I  said,  and  1  toasted  my  hose  at  the 
fire. 

"  1  wish  I  could  make  up  my  mind  whether  an 
excuse  is  valid  or  not,"  said  the  cleric ;  "  and  I  'm 
willing  to  find  more  excuses  for  MacCailein  than 
I  '11  warrant  he  can  find  for  himself  this  morning, 
wherever  he  may  happen  to  be.  It  is  the  humour 
of  God  Almighty  sometimes  to  put  two  men  in  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  339 

one  skin.  So  far  as  I  may  humbly  judge,  Argile 
is  the  poor  victim  of  such  an  economy.  You 
have  seen  the  sort  of  man  I  mean ;  to-day  gener- 
ous to  his  last  plack,  to-morrow  the  widow's  op- 
pressor; Sunday  a  soul  humble  at  the  throne  of 
grace,  and  writhing  with  remorse  for  some  child's 
sin,  Monday  riding  vaingloriously  in  the  glaur  on 
the  road  to  hell,  bragging  of  filthy  amours,  and 
inwardly  gloating  upon  a  crime  anticipated.  Oh, 
but  were  the  human  soul  made  on  less  devious 
plan,  how  my  trade  of  Gospel  messenger  were 
easy !  And  valour,  too,  is  it  not  in  most  men  a 
fever  of  the  moment;  at  another  hour  the  call  for 
courage  might  find  them  quailing  and  flying  like 
the  coney  of  the  rocks." 

"  Then  Argile,  you  think,  was  on  those  occa- 
sions the  sport  of  his  weaker  self? "  I  pushed.  I 
found  so  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  satisfaction 
to  my  natural  curiosity  that  I  counted  no  per- 
sistence too  rude  now. 

"  He  was  the  result  of  his  history,"  said  the  min- 
ister quickly,  his  face  flushing  with  a  sudden  inspi- 
ration. "  From  the  start  of  time  those  black 
moments  for  the  first  Marquis  of  Argile  have  been 
preparing.  I  can  speak  myself  of  his  more  recent 
environment.  He  has  about  him  ever  flatterers  of 
the  type  of  our  friend,  the  sentinel  out  there,  well- 
meaning  but  a  woeful  influence,  keeping  from  him 
every  rumour  that  might  vex  his  ear,  colouring 
every  event  in  such  a  manner  as  will  please  him. 
They  kept  the  man  so  long  in  a  delusion  that  fate 
itself  was  under  his  heel,  that  when  the  stress  of 
things  came " 


340  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  Not  another  word  !  "  cried  M'lver  from  the 
doorway. 

We  turned  round  and  found  him  standing  there 
wrapped  up  in  his  plaid,  his  bonnet  over  a  frown- 
ing brow,  menace  in  his  eye. 

"  Not  another  word,  if  it  must  be  in  that  key. 
Has  Archibald,  Marquis  of  Argile  and  Lord  of 
Lochow,  no  friends  in  this  convocation?  I  would 
have  thought  his  own  paid  curate  and  a  neighbour 
so  close  as  Elrigmore  would  never  waste  the  hours 
due  to  sleep  upon  treason  to  the  man  who  deserved 
better  of  them." 

"  You  should  have  eavesdropped  earlier  and 
you  would  have  learned  that  there  was  no  treason 
in  the  matter.  I  'm  as  leal  friend  to  my  lord  of 
Argile  as  you  or  any  of  your  clan.  What  do  I 
care  for  your  bubbly-jock  Highland  vanity?  "  said 
Gordon. 

"  We  were  saying  nothing  of  MacCailein  that 
we  would  not  say  to  you,"  I  explained  to  M'lver, 
annoyed  in  some  degree  by  his  interference, 

"  Ay,  ay,"  said  he,  with  a  pit)-ing  shrug  of  the 
shoulder,  and  throwing  off  his  last  objection  to  my 
curiosity;  "you're  on  the  old  point  again.  Man, 
but  you  're  ill  to  satisfy  !  And  yet  we  must  have 
the  story  sooner  or  later,  I  suppose.  I  would 
rather  have  it  an}-whcre  tlian  in  this  wauf  and 
empty  foreign  domicile,  that  is  a  melancholy  in 
itself  enough  for  any  man.  But  since  the  minis- 
ter's  in  a  key  for  history  let  him  on." 

"  I  'm  in  no  key  for  history  at  all,"  said  Master 
Gordon,  very  shortly.     "  If  you   would  have  the 


JOHN   SPLENDID  341 

truth,  I  'm  searching  my  wits  for  some  accounting 
for  the  conduct  of  a  nobleman  I  love  more  than  a 
brother." 

"And  that's  no  great  credit  to  you;  hav^e  you 
ever  known  his  equal?"  cried  M'lver,  always  in 
the  mood  for  bickering  with  this  Lowland  scholar, 
the  only  person  or  almost  the  only  person  I  found 
him  unwilling  to  pick  and  choose  words  for. 

"  You  're  speaking  there  as  a  kinsman  and  clans- 
man," said  Master  Gordon ;  "  I  'm  speaking  as 
man  of  man.  I  like  this  one  for  his  struggle, 
sometimes  successful,  sometimes  not  all  that  way, 
to  keep  a  manly  and  religious  front  before  those 
contending  passions  within  him.  He  is  a  remnant 
of  the  old  world  of  Highland  sturt  and  strife,  and 
still  to  a  degree  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  man  endowed  by  heaven  with  a  genius  of 
peace  and  intellect.  Fighting  with  a  horde  of 
savages  against  reivers  no  more  dishonest  than  his 
own  clans,  is  it  a  wonder  that  sometimes  Mac- 
Cailein's  spirit,  the  spirit  of  the  thinker  and  the 
scholar,  should  sink  at  the  horror  of  his  position? 
For  all  that,  he  has  a  courageous  front  nine  times 
out  of  ten,  and  it  would  have  beei;  a  miracle  itself 
if  he  had  not  taken  to  the  galley  at  Inverlochy 
yesterday  morning." 

"  Yesterday  morning  !  "  I  cried.  "  Good  God  ! 
I  thought  it  was  years  ago,  or  something  in  a 
dream." 

"  And  it  was  just  yesterday  morning,"  spoke  on 
the  cleric,  "  and  to-day  there  's  a  marquis  on  his 
way  south    somewhere  thinking  of  yesterday   (I 


342  JOHN   SPLENDID 

make  no  doubt)  even  on,  with  every  recollection 
of  his  life  lost  for  a  space  below  that  salt  sea  of 
remorse.  And  so  simple  the  thing,  too,  like  every 
pregnant  moment  of  life.  We  lay  on  the  flat  land 
yonder  as  you  left  us  on  your  reconnoitre,  changed 
shots  on  the  Saturday  night  with  wandering  mal- 
contents as  we  thought  them,  and  found  Montrose 
on  the  braes  above  us  as  the  dawn  broke.  We 
had  but  a  shot  or  two  apiece  to  the  musket,  they 
tell  me.  Dunbarton's  drums  rolled,  the  pipes 
clamoured,  the  camp  rose  from  its  sleep  in  a  con- 
fusion, and  a  white  moon  was  fainting  behind  us. 
Argile,  who  had  slept  in  a  galley  all  night,  came 
ashore  in  a  wherry  with  his  left  arm  in  a  sling. 
His  face  was  like  the  clay,  but  he  had  a  firm  lip, 
and  he  was  buckling  a  hauberk  with  a  steady  hand 
as  the  men  fell  under  arms.  Left  alone  then,  I 
have  a  belief  that  he  would  have  come  through 
the  affair  gallantly ;  but  the  Highland  double- 
dealings  were  too  much  for  him.  He  turned  to 
Auchinbreck,    and    '  Shall    I   take   the    command, 

or '  leaving  an  alternative  for  his  relative  to 

guess  at.  Auchinbreck,  a  stout  soldier  but  a 
vicious,  snappqd  him  very  short.  '  Leave  it  to 
me,  leave  it  to  me,'  he  answered,  and  busied  him- 
self again  in  disposing  his  troops,  upon  whom  I 
was  well  aware  he  had  no  great  reliance.  Then 
Sir  James  Rollock-Niddry  and  a  few  others  pushed 
the  Marquis  to  take  his  place  in  his  galley  again, 
but  would  he?  Not  till  Auchinbreck  came  up  a 
second  time,  and  seeing  the  contention  of  his 
mind,    took   your    Highland    way    of  flattering   a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  343 

chief,  and  made  a  poltroon  act  appear  one  of 
judgment  and  necessity.  '  As  a  man  and  soldier 
only,  you  might  be  better  here  at  the  onset,'  said 
Auchinbreck,  who  had  a  wily  old  tongue ;  '  but 
you  are  disabled  against  using  sword  or  pistol ; 
you  are  the  mainstay  of  a  great  national  move- 
ment, depending  for  its  success  on  your  life,  free- 
dom, and  continued  exertion.'  Argile  took  to  the 
galley  again,  and  Auchinbreck  looked  after  him 
with  a  shamed  and  dubious  eye.  Well,  well,  Sir 
Duncan  has  paid  for  his  temporising;  he's  in  his 
place  appointed.  I  passed  the  knowe  where  he 
lay  writhing  to  a  terrible  end,  with  a  pike  at  his 
vitals,  and  he  was  moaning  for  the  chief  he  had 
helped  to  a  shabby  flight." 

"A  shabby  flight!"  said  M'lver,  with  a  voice 
that  was  new  to  mc,  so  harsh  was  it  and  so  high- 
set. 

"  You  can  pick  the  word  for  yourself,"  said  the 
minister ;  "  if  by  heaven's  grace  I  was  out  of  this, 
in  Inneraora  I  should  have  my  own  way  of  putting 
it  to  Argile,  whom  I  love  and  blame." 

"  Oh,  you  Lowland  dog !  "  cried  John  Splendid, 
more  high-keyed  than  ever,  '^ yoic  to  criticise 
Argile !  "  And  he  stepped  up  to  the  cleric,  who 
was  standing  by  the  chimney-jambs,  glowered 
hellishly  in  his  face,  then  with  a  fury  caught  his 
throat  in  his  fingers,  and  pinned  him  up  against 
the  wall. 


344  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

I  CAUGHT  M'lver  by  the  coat-lapels  and  took  him 
off  the  gasping  cleric. 

"  Oh,  man !  "  I  cried,  "  is  this  the  Highland 
brigadier  to  be  throttling  an  old  soldier  of  Christ?  " 

"Let  me  get  at  him,  and  I  '11  set  him  in  the  way 
of  putting  the  last  truth  of  his  trade  to  its  only 
test,"  said  he,  still  with  a  face  corp-white,  tugging 
at  my  hold  and  eyeing  Master  Gordon  with  a 
very  uplifted  and  ferocious  demeanour. 

I  suppose  he  must,  in  the  midst  of  his  fury,  have 
got  just  a  glisk  of  the  true  thing  before  him  —  not 
a  w^orthy  and  fair  opponent  for  a  man  of  his  own 
years,  but  an  old,  wearied  man  of  peace,  with  a 
flabby  neck,  and  his  countenance  blotched,  and 
his  wig  ajee  upon  his  head  so  that  it  showed  the 
bald  pate  below,  for  he  came  to  himself  as  it  were 
with  a  start.  Then  he  was  ashamed  most  bitterly. 
He  hung  his  head  and  scraped  with  an  unconscious 
foot  upon  the  floor.  The  minister  recovered  his 
wind,  looked  with  contempt  in  every  line  at  the 
man  who  had  abused  him,  and  sat  down  without  a 
word  before  the  fire. 

"  I 'm  sorry  about  this,"  said  MTvcr,  fumbling 
about  his  waistbclt  with  nervous  fingers;  "I'm 
sorry  about  this,  Master  Gordon.     A  Highlander 


JOHN   SPLENDID  345- 

cannot  be  aye  keeping  God's  gift  of  a  temper  in 
leash,  and  yet  it 's  my  disgrace  to  have  laid  a  hand 
on  a  gentleman  of  your  age  and  calling,  even  for 
the  name  of  my  chief.  Will  you  credit  me  when 
I  say  I  was  blind  to  my  own  act?  Something  in 
me  rose  uncontrollable,  and  had  you  been  Hector 
in  armour,  or  my  grandfather  from  the  grave,  I  was 
at  your  neck." 

"  Say  no  more  about  it,"  answered  Gordon. 
"  I  have  seen  the  wolf  so  often  at  the  Highlander's 
heart  that  I  need  not  be  wondering  to  find  him 
snarling  and  clawing  now.  And  still  —  from  a 
gentleman  —  and  a  person  of  travel " 

"Say  away,  sir,"  said  M'lver,  bitterly;  "you 
have  the  whole  plea  with  you  this  time,  and  I  'm 
a  rogue  of  the  blackest.  I  can  say  no  more  than 
I  'm  sorry  for  a  most  dirty  action." 

Gordon  looked  at  him,  and  seemed  convinced 
that  here  was  a  genuine  remorse;  at  least  his  mien 
softened  and  he  said  quietly,  "  You  '11  hear  no 
more  of  it  from  me." 

We  were  standing,  M'lver  and  I,  in  front  of  the 
hearth,  warming  to  the  peat  glow,  and  the  cleric 
sat  in  an  oak  arm-chair.  Out  in  the  vacant  night 
the  rain  still  pattered  and  the  gale  cried.  And  all 
at  once,  above  the  sound  of  wind  and  water,  there 
came  a  wild  rapping  at  the  main  door  of  the 
house,  the  alarm  of  a  very  crouse  and  angr)' 
traveller,  finding  a  hostel  barred  against  him  at 
unseasonable  hours.  A  whole  childhood  of  fairy 
tale  rose  to  my  mind  in  a  second  ;  but  the  plain 
truth  followed   with    more    conviction,    that   there 


346  JOHN   SPLENDID 

was  no  witch,  warlock,  nor  fairy,  but  some  one  with 
a  better  right  to  the  tenancy  of  Dalness  than  seven 
broken  men  with  nor  let  nor  tack.  We  were 
speedily  together,  the  seven  of  us,  and  gathered 
in  the  hall,  and  listening  with  mouths  open  and 
hearts  dunting,  to  the  rapping  that  had  no  sign 
of  ceasing. 

"  I  '11  have  a  vizzy  from  an  upper  window  of 
who  this  may  be,"  said  John,  sticking  a  piece  of 
pine  in  the  fire  till  it  flared  at  the  end,  and  hurry- 
ing with  it  thus  lighted  up  the  stair.  I  followed 
at  his  heels,  while  the  rest  remained  below  ready 
to  give  whatever  reception  was  most  desirable  to 
the  disturbers  of  our  night's  repose.  The  window 
we  went  to  looked  out  on  the  most  utter  blackness, 
a  blackness  that  seemed  to  stream  in  at  the  win- 
dow as  we  swung  it  softly  back  on  its  hinge. 
MTver  put  out  his  head  and  his  torch,  giving  a 
warder's  keek  at  the  door  below  where  the  knock- 
ing continued.  He  drew  in  his  head  t[uickly  and 
looked  at  me  with  astonishment. 

"  It 's  a  woman,"  said  he.  "  I  never  saw  a  cam- 
paign where  so  many  petticoats  of  one  kind  or 
another  were  going.  Who,  in  God's  name,  can 
this  one  be,  and  what 's  her  errand  to  Dalness  at 
this  hour?  One  of  its  regular  occupants  would 
scarcely  make  such  to-do  about  her  summons." 

"  The  quickest  answer  could  be  got  by  asking 
her,"  I  said. 

"  And  about  a  feint?  "  he  said,  musing.  "  Well, 
we  can  but  test  it." 

We  went  down  and  reported  to  our  companions, 


JOHN    SPLENDID  347 

and  Gordon  was  for  opening  the  door  on  the 
moment.  "  A  wanderer  hke  ourselves,"  said  he, 
"  perhaps  a  widow  of  our  own  making  from  Glen- 
coe.  In  any  case,  a  woman,  and  out  in  the 
storm." 

We  stood  round  the  doors  while  M'lver  put 
back  the  bars  and  opened  as  much  as  would  give 
entry  to  one  person  at  a  time.  There  was  a  loud 
cry,  and  in  came  the  Dark  Dame,  a  very  spectacle 
of  sorrow !  Her  torn  garments  clung  sodden  to 
her  skin,  her  hair  hung  stringy  at  her  neck,  the 
elements  had  chilled  and  drowned  the  frenzied 
gleaming  of  her  eyes.  And  there  she  stood  in 
the  doorway  among  us,  poor  woman,  poor  wretch, 
with  a  frame  shaking  to  her  tearless  sobs. 

"  You  have  no  time  to  lose,"  she  said  to  our 
query,  "  a  score  of  Glencoe  men  are  at  my  back. 
They  fancy  they  '11  have  you  here  in  the  trap  this 
house's  owner  left  you.  Are  you  not  the  fools 
to  be  advantaging  yourselves  of  comforts  }-ou 
might  be  sure  no  fairy  left  for  Campbells  in  Dal- 
ness?  You  may  have  done  poorly  at  Inverlochy 
—  though  I  hear  the  Lowlanders  and  not  you  were 
the  poltroons  —  but  blood  is  thicker  than  water, 
and  have  we  not  the  same  hills  beside  our  doors 
at  home,  and  I  have  run  many  miles  to  warn  \ou 
that  MacDonald  is  on  his  way."  She  told  her 
story  with  sense  and  straightness,  her  frenzy  sub- 
dued by  the  day's  rigour.  Our  flight  from  her 
cries,  she  said,  had  left  her  a  feeling  of  lonely 
helplessness;  she  found,  as  she  sped,  her  heart 
truer  to  the  tartan  of  her  name  than  her  ancrcr  had 


348  JOHN    SPLENDID 

let  her  fancy,  and  so  she  followed  us  round  Loch 
Linnhe-head  and  over  the  hills  to  Glencoe.  At 
the  blind  woman's  house  in  the  morning,  where 
she  passed  readily  enough  for  a  natural,  she  learned 
that  the  eldest  son  in  the  bed  had  set  about  word 
of  our  presence  before  we  were  long  out  of  his 
mother's  door.  The  men  we  had  seen  going  down 
in  the  airt  of  Tynree  were  the  lad's  gathering, 
and  they  would  have  lost  us  but  for  the  beetle- 
browed  rogue,  who,  guessing  our  route  through 
the  hills  to  Dalness,  had  run  before  them,  and, 
unhampered  by  arms  or  years,  had  reached  the 
house  of  Dalness  a  little  before  we  came  out  of 
our  journey  in  swamp  and  corry.  A  sharp  blade, 
certes  !  he  had  seen  that  unless  something  brought 
us  to  pause  a  while  at  Dalness  we  would  be  out 
of  the  reach  of  his  friends  before  they  had  gained 
large  enough  numbers  and  made  up  on  him.  So 
he  had  planned  with  the  few  folk  in  the  house  to 
leave  it  temptingly  open  in  our  way,  with  the 
shrewd  guess  that  starved  and  wearied  men  would 
be  found  sleeping  beside  the  fire  when  the  Mac- 
Donalds  came  round  the  gusset.  All  this  the 
Dame  Dubh  heard  and  realised  even  in  her  half 
frenzy  as  she  spent  some  time  in  the  company  of 
the  marching  MacDonalds,  who  never  dreamed 
that  her  madness  and  her  denunciations  of  Clan 
Diarmaid  were  mi.Kcd  in  some  degree  with  a 
natural  interest  in  the  welfare  of  every  member 
of  that  clan. 

M'lver  scrutinised  the  woman  sharply,  to  assure 
himself  there   was    no    cunning   effort   of  a   mad 


JOHN   SPLENDID  349 

woman  to  pay  off  the  score  her  evil  tongue  of  the 
day  before  revealed  she  had  been  reckoning;  but 
he  saw  only  her  dementia  gone  to  a  great  degree, 
a  friend  anxious  for  our  welfare,  so  anxious,  in- 
deed, that  the  food  Master  Gordon  was  pressing 
upon  her  made  no  appeal  to  her  famishing  body. 

"You  come  wonderfully  close  on  my  Frankfort 
story,"  said  M'lver,  whimsically.  "  I  only  hope 
we  may  win  out  of  Dalness  as  snugly  as  we  won 
out  of  the  castle  of  the  cousin  of  Pomerania." 

For  a  minute  or  two  we  debated  on  our  tactics. 
We  had  no  muskets,  though  swords  were  rife 
enough  in  Dalness,  so  a  stand  and  a  defence  by 
weapons  was  out  of  the  question.  M'lver  struck 
on  a  more  pleasing  and  cleanly  plan.  It  was  to 
give  the  MacDonalds  tit  for  tat  and  decoy  them 
into  the  house  as  their  friends  had  decoyed  us  into 
it,  and  leave  them  there  in  durance  while  we  went 
on  our  own  ways. 

We  jammed  down  the  iron  pins  of  the  shutters 
in  the  salmanger,  so  that  any  exit  or  entrance  by 
this  way  was  made  a  task  of  the  greatest  difficulty; 
then  we  lit  the  upper  flats,  to  give  the  notion  that 
we  were  lying  there.  M'lver  took  his  place  be- 
hind a  door  that  led  from  the  hall  to  other  parts 
of  the  house,  and  was  indeed  the  only  way  there, 
while  the  rest  of  us  went  out  into  the  night  and 
concealed  ourselves  in  the  dark  angle  made  by  a 
turret  and  gable,  a  place  where  we  could  sec, 
without  being  seen,  any  person  seeking  entry  to 
the   house. 

All  the   paths   about  the  mansion  were  strewn 


350  JOHN    SPLENDID 

with  rough  sand  or  gravel  from  the  river,  and  the 
rain,  in  slanting  spears,  played  hiss  upon  them 
with  a  sound  I  never  hear  to-day  but  my  mind  's 
again  in  old  Dalness.  And  in  the  dark,  vague 
with  rain  and  mist,  the  upper  windows  shone  blear 
and  ghostly,  dull  vapours  from  a  swamp,  corp-can- 
dles  on  the  sea,  more  than  the  eyes  of  a  habitable 
dwelling  warm  and  lit  within.  We  stood  the 
seven  of  us  against  the  gable  (for  the  woman 
joined  us  and  munched  a  dry  crust  between  the 
chittering  of  her  teeth)  waiting  the  coming  of  the 
MacDonalds. 

I  got  to  my  musing  again,  puzzled  in  this  cold 
adventure,  upon  the  mystery  of  life.  I  thought 
it  must  be  a  dream  such  as  a  man  has  lying 
in  strange  beds,  for  my  spirit  floated  and  cried 
upon  that  black  and  ugly  air,  lost  and  seeking  as 
the  soul  of  a  man  struggling  under  sleep.  I  had 
been  there  before,  I  felt,  in  just  such  piteous  case 
among  friends  in  the  gable  of  a  dwelling,  yet  all 
alone,  waiting  for  visitors  I  had  no  welcome  for. 
And  then  again  (I  would  think),  is  not  all  life  a 
dream,  the  sun  and  night  of  it,  the  seasons,  the 
faces  of  friends,  the  flicker  of  fires  and  the  nip  of 
wine ;  and  am  not  I  now  stark  awake  for  the  first 
time,  the  creature  of  God,  alone  in  His  world 
before  the  dusk  has  been  divided  from  the  day 
and  bird  and  beast  have  been  let  loose  to  wander 
about  a  new  universe?  Or  again  (I  would  think), 
am  I  not  dead  and  done  with?  Surely  I  fell  in 
some  battle  away  in  Low  Germanic,  or  later  in 
the    sack    of   Inneraora   town,    that   was    a    town 


JOHN   SPLENDID  351 

long,  long  ago  before  the  wave  threshed  in  upon 
Dunchuach? 

The  man  with  the  want,  as  usual,  was  at  his 
tears,  whispering  to  himself  reproach  and  memory 
and  omens  of  fear,  but  he  was  alert  enough  to  be 
the  first  to  observe  the  approach  of  our  enemy. 
Ten  minutes  at  least  before  they  appeared  on  the 
sward  lit  by  the  lights  of  the  upper  windows,  he 
lifted  a  hand,  cocked  an  ear,  and  told  us  he  heard 
their  footsteps. 

There  were  about  a  score  and  a  half  of  the 
MacDonalds  altogether,  of  various  ages,  some  of 
them  old  gutchers  that  had  been  better  advised  to 
be  at  home  snug  by  the  fire  in  such  a  night  or 
saying  their  prayers  in  preparation  for  the  loom- 
ing grave,  some  of  them  young  and  strapping,  all 
well  enough  armed  with  everything  but  musketry, 
and  guided  to  the  house  by  the  blind  woman's  son 
and  a  gentleman  in  a  laced  coat,  whom  we  took  to 
be  the  owner  of  Dalness  because  two  men  of  the 
bearing  and  style  of  servants  were  in  his  train  and 
very  pretentious  about  his  safety  in  the  course  of 
a  debate  that  took  place  a  few  yards  from  us  as 
to  whether  they  should  demand  our  surrender  or 
attack  and  cut  us  down  without  quarter. 

The  gentleman  sent  his  two  lackies  round  the 
house,  and  they  came  back  reporting  (what  we 
had  been  very  careful  of)  that  every  door  was 
barred. 

"  Then,"  said  the  gentleman,  "  we  '11  try  a  bland 
knock,  and  if  need  be,  force  the  main  door." 

He  was  standing  now  in  a  half  dusk,  clear  of  the 


352  JOHN   SPLENDID 

light  of  the  windows,  with  a  foot  on  the  step  of 
the  door;  behind  him  gathered  the  MacDonalds 
with  their  weapons  ready,  and  I  daresay,  could 
we  have  seen  it,  with  no  very  pretty  look  on  their 
faces.  As  he  spoke,  he  put  his  hand  on  the  hasp, 
and  to  his  surprise,  the  heavy  door  was  open. 
We  had  taken  good  care  of  that  too. 

The  band  gathered  themselves  together  and 
dived  into  the  place,  and  the  plaiding  of  the  last 
of  them  had  scarcely  got  inside  the  door  than 
Stewart  ran  up  with  the  key  and  turned  the  lock, 
with  a  low  whistle  for  the  guidance  of  M'lver  at 
the  inner  door.  In  a  minute  or  less,  John  was 
round  in  our  midst  again  with  his  share  of  the 
contract  done,  and  our  rats  were  squealing  in 
their  trap. 

For  a  little  there  was  nothing  but  crying  and 
cursing,  wild  beating  against  the  door,  vain  attack 
on  the  windows,  a  fury  so  futile  that  it  was  sweet 
to  us  outsiders,  and  we  forgot  the  storm  and  the 
hardship. 

At  last  M'lver  rapped  on  the  door  and  de- 
manded attention. 

"Is  there  any  one  there  with  the  English?"  he 
asked. 

The  gentleman  of  Dalness  answered  that  he 
could  speak  English  with  the  best  catcran  ever 
came  out  of  MacCailein  Mor's  country,  and  he 
called  for  instant  release,  with  a  menace  added 
that  Hell  itself  could  not  excel  the  punishment 
for  us  if  they  were  kept  much  longer  under  lock 
and  bar.     "  We  are  but  an  adwinced  guard,"  said 


JOHN   SPLENDID  353 

he,  with  a  happy  thought  at  lying,  "  and  our 
friends  will  be  at  your  back  before  long." 

M'lver  laughed  pawkily. 

"  Come,  come,  Dalness,"  said  he,  "  do  you  take 
us  for  girls?  You  have  every  man  left  in  Glencoe 
at  your  back  there ;  you  're  as  much  ours  as  if 
you  were  in  the  tolbooth  of  Inneraora  O ;  and 
I  would  just  be  mentioning  that  if  I  were  in 
your  place  I  would  be  speaking  very  soft  and 
soothing." 

"  I  '11  argue  the  thing  fairly  with  you  if  you  let 
us  out,"  said  Dalness,  stifling  his  anger  behind  the 
door,  but  still  with  the  full  force  of  it  apparent  in 
the  stress  of  his  accent. 

M'lver  laughed  again. 

"  You  have  a  far  better  chance  where  you  are," 
said  he.  "  You  are  very  snug  and  warm  there ; 
the  keg  of  brandy  's  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the 
fire,  though  I  'm  afraid  there  's  not  very  much  left 
of  it  now  that  my  friend  of  Achnatra  here  has 
had  his  will  of  it.  Tell  those  gentry  with  you  that 
we  intend  to  make  ourselves  cosy  in  other  parts  of 
the  house  till  the  morn's  morning,  and  that  if  they 
attempt  to  force  a  way  out  by  door  or  window 
before  we  let  them  we  '11  have  sentinels  to  blow 
out  the  little  brains  they  have.  I  'm  putting  it  to 
you  in  the  English,  Dalness  —  and  I  cry  pardon 
for  making  my  first  gossip  with  a  Highland  gentle- 
man in  such  a  tongue  —  but  I  want  you  to  put  my 
message  in  as  plausible  a  way  as  suits  you  best  to 
the  lads  and  bodachs  with  you." 

The  man  drew  away  from  the  neighbourhood  of 

2i 


354  JOHN   SPLENDID 

the  door ;  there  was  a  long  silence,  and  we  con- 
cluded they  were  holding  parley  of  war  as  to  what 
was  next  to  be  done.  Meantime  we  made  prepara- 
tions to  be  moving  from  a  place  that  was  neither 
safe  nor  homely.  We  took  food  from  the  pantries, 
scourged  Stewart  from  a  press  he  was  prying  in 
with  clawing  fingers  and  bulging  pockets,  and  had 
just  got  together  again  at  the  rear  of  the  house 
when  a  cry  at  the  front  told  us  that  our  enemies, 
in  some  way  we  never  learned  the  manner  of,  had 
got  the  better  of  our  bolted  doors  and  shutters. 

Perhaps  a  chance  of  planning  our  next  step 
would  have  been  in  our  favour;  perhaps,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  would  have  been  the  worse  for  us, 
because  in  human  folly  we  might  have  determined 
on  staying  to  face  the  odds  against  us,  but  there 
was  no  time  for  balancing  the  chances ;  whatever 
was  to  be  done  was  to  be  done  quickly. 

"  Royal 's  my  race  !  "  cried  Stewart,  dropping  a 
pillow-slip  full  of  goods  he  carried  with  him  — 
"Royal's  my  race — and  here's  one  with  great 
respect  for  keeping  up  the  name  of  it."  And  he 
leaped  to  a  thicket  on  his  left.  The  man  with  the 
want  ran  weeping  up  to  the  Dark  Dame  and  clung 
to  her  torn  gown,  a  very  child  in  the  stupor  of  his 
grief  and  fear.  The  baron-bailie  and  Sonaciian 
and  the  minister  stood  spellbound,  and  I  cursed 
our  folly  at  the  weakness  of  our  trap.  Only  M'lver 
kept  his  wits  about  him. 

"Scatter,"  said  he  in  luiglish  —  "Scatter  \\'ith- 
out  adicux,  and  all  to  the  fore  by  morning  search 
back  to  the  Brig  of  Urchy,  comrades  there  till  the 


JOHN    SPLENDID  335 

middle  of  the  day,  then  the  devil  take  the  hind- 
most." 

More  than  a  dozen  MacDonalds  came  running 
round  the  gable  end,  lit  by  the  upper  windows, 
and  we  dispersed  like  chaff  to  the  wind  before 
M'lver's  speech  concluded.  He  and  I  ran  for  a 
time  together,  among  the  bushes  of  the  garden, 
through  the  curly  kail,  under  low  young  firs  that 
clutched  at  the  clothing.  Behind  us  the  night 
rang  with  pursuing  cries,  with  challenge  and  call, 
a  stupid  clamour  that  gave  a  clue  to  the  track  we 
could  follow  with  greatest  safety.  M'lver  seem- 
ingly stopped  to  listen,  or  made  up  his  mind  to 
deviate  to  the  side  after  a  little ;  for  I  soon  found 
myself  running  alone,  and  two  or  three  men 
—  to  judge  by  their  cries  —  keeping  as  close  on 
me  as  they  could  by  the  sound  of  my  plunging 
among  twig  and  bracken.  At  last,  by  striking  to 
an  angle  down  a  field  that  suddenly  rolled  down 
beside  me,  I  found  soft  carpeting  for  my  feet,  and 
put  an  increasing  distance  between  us.  With  no 
relaxation  of  my  step,  however,  I  kept  running  till 
I  seemed  a  good  way  clear  of  Dalness  policies, 
and  on  a  bridle-path  that  led  up  the  glen,  the  very 
road,  as  I  learned  later,  that  our  enemy  had  taken 
on  their  way  from  Tynree.  I  kept  on  it  for  a  little 
as  well  as  I  could,  but  the  night  was  so  dark  (and 
still  the  rain  was  pouring,  though  the  wind  had 
lowered)  that  by-and-by  I  lost  the  path,  and 
landed  upon  rough  water-broken  rocky  land,  bare 
of  tree  or  bush.  The  tumult  behind  me  was  long 
since  stilled  in  distance,  the  storm  itself  had  abated, 


356  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  I  had  traversed  for  less  than  an  hour  .when 
the  rain  ceased.  But  still  the  night  was  solemn 
black,  though  my  eyes,  by  usage,  had  grown  apt 
and  accustomed  to  separate  the  dense  black  of  the 
boulder  from  the  drab  air  around  it.  The  country 
is  one  threaded  on  every  hand  by  eas  and  brook 
that  drop  down  the  mountain  sides  at  almost 
every  yard  of  the  way.  Nothing  was  to  hear  but 
the  sound  of  running  and  falling  waters,  every 
brook  with  its  own  note,  a  tinkle  of  gold  on  a 
marble  stair  as  I  came  to  it,  declining  to  a  mur- 
mur of  sweethearts  in  a  bower  as  I  put  its  banks 
behind  me  after  wading  or  leaping;  or  a  song 
sung  in  a  clear  spring  morning  by  a  girl  among 
heather  hills,  muffling  behind  me  to  the  black- 
guard discourse  of  banditti  waiting  with  poignards 
out  upon  a  lonely  highway. 

I  was  lost  somewhere  north  of  Glen  Etive ;  near 
me  I  knew  must  be  Tynree,  for  I  had  been  walk- 
ing for  two  hours  and  yet  I  dare  not  venture  back 
on  the  straight  route  to  to-morrow's  rendezvous 
till  something  of  daylight  gave  me  guidance.  At 
last  I  concluded  that  the  way  through  the  Black 
Mount  country  to  Bredalbane  must  be  so  close  at 
hand  it  would  be  stupidity  of  the  densest  to  go 
back  by  Dalness.  There  was  so  much,  level  land 
round  me  that  I  felt  sure  I  must  be  rounding  the 
Bredalbane  hills,  so  I  chanced  a  plunge  to  the 
left.  I  had  not  taken  twenty  steps  when  I  ran  up 
against  the  dry-stone  dyke  that  bordered  the  Inns 
of  Tynree. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  357 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

TVNREE  is  the  Gaelic  of  a  name  that  in  the  Eng- 
Hsh  is  King's  House.  What  humour  gave  so 
gaudy  a  title  to  so  humble  a  place  I  have  been 
always  beat  to  know.  For  if  the  poorest  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  poor  isles  had  his  choice  of  the  gal- 
lows at  once  or  Tynree  for  a  long  habitation,  I  'm 
thinking  he  would  cry,  "  Out  with  your  rope." 
Standing  all  its  lee  lone  on  the  edge  of  the  wild- 
est moor  of  all  the  Scottish  kingdom,  blustered 
on  by  the  winds  of  Glencoe  and  Glen  Etive,  the 
house,  far  apart  from  any  other  (even  a  hunter's 
bothy  among  the  corries),  must  be  eerie,  empty 
of  all  but  its  owner  at  most  seasons  of  the  year. 
He  will  have  nothing  about  him  but  the  fl)'ing 
plover  that  is  so  heart-breaking  in  its  piping  at 
the  gray  of  morn,  for  him  must  the  night  be  a 
dreariness  no  rowth  of  cruisie  or  candle  may  miti- 
gate. I  can  fancy  him  looking  out  day  after  day 
upon  plains  of  snow  and  cruel  summits,  blanching 
and  snarling  under  sodden  skies,  and  him  wishing 
that  God  so  good  was  less  careless  and  had  given 
him  a  home  and  trade  back  among  the  cosy  little 
glens  if  not  in  the  romping  towns.  But  they  tell 
me — people  who  rove  and  have  tried  Tynree  in 
all  weathers  —  that  often  it  is  cheerful  with  song 
and   story,  and  there  is  a  tale  that  once  upon  a 


358  JOHN    SPLENDID 

time  a  little  king,  out  adventuring  in  the  kingly 
ways  of  winter  stories,  found  this  tavern  in  the 
wilds  so  warm,  so  hospitable,  so  resounding  with 
the  songs  of  good  fellows  that  he  bided  as  a  guest 
for  a  week  of  the  winter  weather. 

When  I  came  on  Tynree,  it  was  sounding  with 
music,  just  it  might  be  as  in  the  day  of  the  king 
in  the  story.  Three  of  the  morning,  yet  the  hostel 
sent  out  a  most  hearty  reek  and  firelight,  the 
odours  of  stewing  meats  and  of  strong  waters,  and 
the  sound  of  piping  and  trumping  and  laughing. 

I  stood  back  a  piece  from  the  house  and  de- 
bated with  myself  whether  or  not  it  was  one 
where  the  tartan  of  Diarmaid  would  be  sure  of  a 
welcome  even  if  his  sporran  jingled  with  gold  to 
the  very  jaws.  All  I  wanted  was  shelter  till  the 
day  broke  and  —  this  may  seem  odd  to  any  one 
who  has  not  known  the  utter  wearisomeness  of 
being  a  hunted  man  jinking  in  the  dark  among 
woods  and  alleys  —  the  easy  conversation  of  some 
human  beings  with  no  thought  bothering  them 
but  what  would  be  for  the  next  meal,  or  the 
price  of  cattle  at  a  town  tryst.  And  song  and 
trump  —  come,  I'll  tell  the  God's  own  truth  upon 
that!  They  called  me  Sobersides  in  those  days; 
M'lver  gave  me  the  name  and  kept  it  on  me  till 
the  very  last,  and  yet  sobriety  of  spirit  (in  one 
way)  was  the  last  quality  in  those  old  days  of 
no  grace  to  find  in  my  nature.  I  liked  to  sit  in 
taverns,  drinking  not  deeply,  but  enough  to  keep 
the  mood  from  flagging  with  people  of  the  young 
heart,  people  fond  of  each  other,  adrift  from  all 


JOHN   SPLENDID  359 

commercial  cunning,  singing  old  staves  and  letting 
their  fancy  go  free  to  a  tune  twanged  on  a  Jew's- 
trump  or  squeezed  upon  a  bagpipe  or  zigged 
upon  a  fiddle.  So  the  merriment  of  Tynree  held 
me  like  a  charm,  and  a  mad  whim  at  last  seized 
me,  and  in  I  went,  confident  that  my  instinct  of 
comradery  would  not  deceive  me,  and  that  at 
least  I  had  the  boon-companion's  chance. 

The  company  never  even  stojDped  their  clamour 
to  look  at  me;  the  landlord  put  a  jug  at  my 
elbow,  and  a  whang  of  bread  and  cheese,  and 
I  was  joining  with  an  affected  gusto  in  a  chorus 
less  than  ten  minutes  after  I  had  been  a  hunted 
man  on  the  edge  of  Moor  Rannoch,  ready  to 
toss  up  a  bawbee  to  learn  whither  my  road 
should  be. 

It  was  an  orra  and  remarkable  gathering,  con- 
vened surely  by  the  trickery  of  a  fantastic  and 
vagabond  providence,  "  not  a  great  many,  but 
well  picked,"  as  Macgregor  the  Mottled  said  of 
his  band  of  thieves.  There  were  men  and  women 
to  the  number  of  a  score,  two  or  three  travelling 
merchants  (as  they  called  themselves,  but  I  think 
in  my  mind  they  were  the  kind  of  merchants  who 
bargain  with  the  dead  corp  on  the  abandoned  bat- 
tlefield, or  follow  expeditions  of  war  to  glean  the 
spoil  from  burning  homesteads) ;  there  were  sev- 
eral gangrels,  an  Irishman  with  a  silver  eye,  a 
strolling  piper  with  poor  skill  of  his  noble  in- 
strument, the  fiddler  who  was  a  drunken  native 
of  the  place,  a  gipsy  and  his  wife  and  some 
randy  women  who  had  dropped  out  of  the  march 


360  JOHN    SPLENDID 

of  Montrose's  troops.  Over  this  notable  congre- 
gation presided  the  man  of  the  house,  none  of 
your  fat  and  genial-looking  gentlemen,  but  a  long, 
lean  personage  with  a  lack-lustre  eye.  You  would 
swear  he  would  dampen  the  joy  of  a  penny  wed- 
ding, and  yet  (such  a  deceit  is  the  countenance)  he 
was  a  person  of  the  finest  wit  and  humour,  other- 
wise I  daresay  Tynree  had  no  such  wonderful 
party  in  it  that  night. 

I  sat  by  the  fire-end  and  quaffed  my  ale,  no  one 
saying  more  to  me  for  a  little  than  "  There  you 
are  !  "  Well  enough  they  knew  my  side  in  the 
issue  —  my  tartan  would  tell  them  that  —  but 
wandering  bodies  have  no  politics  beyond  the 
conviction  that  the  world  owes  them  as  easy  a 
living  as  they  can  cheat  it  out  of,  and  they  never 
mentioned  war.  The  landlord's  dram  was  on, 
and  'twas  it  I  had  shared  in,  and  when  it  was 
over  I  pulled  out  a  crown  and  bought  the  hearti- 
est good-will  of  a  score  of  rogues  with  some  flagons 
of  ale. 

A  beetle-browed  chamber,  long,  narrow,  stifling 
with  the  heat  of  a  great  fire,  its  flagged  floor  at 
intervals  would  slap  with  bare  or  bauchlcd  feet 
(.lancing  to  a  short  reel.  First  one  gangrel  would 
sing  a  verse  or  two  of  a  Lowland  ballant,  not  very 
much  put  out  in  its  sentiment  by  the  presence  of 
the  random  ladies,  then  another  would  pluck  a 
tune  upon  the  Jew's-trump,  a  chorus  would  rise 
like  a  sudden  gust  of  wind,  a  jig  would  shake 
upon  the  fiddle.  I  never  saw  a  more  happy  crew 
nor  yet  one  that  —  judging  from  the  doctrine  that 


JOHN   SPLENDID  361 

thrift  and  sobriety  have  their  just  reward — de- 
served it  less.  I  thought  of  poor  Master  Gordon 
somewhere  dead  or  alive  in  or  about  Dalness,  a 
very  pupil  of  Christ,  and  yet  with  a  share  of  His 
sorrows,  with  nowhere  to  lay  his  head,  but  it  did 
not  bitter  me  to  my  company. 

By-and-by  the  landlord  came  cannily  up  to  me 
and  whispered  in  my  ear  a  sort  of  apology  for  the 
rabble  of  his  house. 

"You  ken,  sir,"  said  he  in  very  good  English  — 
"you  ken  yourself  what  the  country's  like  just 
now,  given  over  to  unending  brawl,  and  I  am 
glad  to  see  good-humoured  people  about  me,  even 
if  they  are  penniless  gangrels." 

"My  own  business  is  war,"  I  acknowledged; 
"  I  '11  be  frank  enough  to  tell  you  I  'm  just  now 
making  my  way  to  Inneraora  as  well  as  the 
weather  and  the  MacDonalds  will  let  me." 

He  was  pleased  at  my  candour,  I  could  see  ;  con- 
fidence is  a  quality  that  rarely  fails  of  its  purpose. 
He  pushed  the  bottle  towards  me  with  the  friend- 
liest of  gestures,  and  took  the  line  of  the  fellow- 
conspirator. 

"  Keep  your  thumb  on  that,"  said  he,  "  I  'm  not 
supposed  to  precognosce  every  lodger  in  Tynrcc 
upon  his  politics.  I  'm  off  Clan  Chattan  myself, 
and  not  very  keen  on  this  quarrel ;  that 's  to  sa\\ 
I  '11  take  no  side  in  it,  for  my  trade  is  feeding  folk 
and  not  fighting  them.  Might  I  be  asking  if  you 
were  of  the  band  of  Campbells  a  corps  of  Mac- 
Donalds  were  chasing  down  the  way  last  night?" 

I  admitted  I  was. 


362  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  said  he,  "  and 
I  '11  do  a  landlord's  duty  by  any  clan  coming  my 
way.  As  for  my  guests  here,  they  're  so  pleased 
to  sec  good  order  broken  in  the  land  and  hamlets 
half-harried  that  they'll  favour  any  man  whose 
trade  is  the  sword,  especially  if  he 's  a  gentle- 
man," he  added.  "  I  'm  one  myself,  though  I 
keep  a  sort  of  poor  hostel  here.  I  'm  a  young 
son." 

We  were  joined  by  the  gipsy,  a  bold,  tall  man, 
with  very  black  and  lambent  eyes,  hiccoughing 
with  drink,  but  not  by  an}'  means  drunken,  who 
took  out  a  wallet  and  insisted  on  my  joining  now 
in  his  drink.     I  dared  not  refuse  the  courtesy. 

"Would  you  like  your  fortune  spaed,  sir?" 
asked  my  black  friend,  twitching  his  thumb  in 
the  direction  of  his  wife,  who  was  leering  on  mc 
with  a  friendliness  begot  of  the  bottle.  The  place 
was  full  of  deafening  noises  and  peat-smoke. 
Fiddle  jigged  and  pipes  snored  in  the  deep  notes 
of  debauchery,  and  the  little  Jew's-trump  twanged 
between  the  teeth  of  a  dirty-faced  man  in  a  saffron 
shirt  and  hodden  brceks,  wanting  jacket  or  hose, 
a  wizen  little  old  man  going  around  the  world 
living  like  a  poet  in  realms  whereto  trump  and 
tipi)le  could  readily  bring  him. 

"  Spae  my  fortune!"  said  I,  laughing;  "such 
swatches  of  the  same  as  I  had  in  the  past  were  of 
no  nature  to  make  me  eager  to  see  what  was  to 
follow." 

"  Still  and  on,"  said  he,  "  who  knows  but  you 
may  find  a  wife  and  a  good  fortune  in  a  little  lurk 


JOHN   SPLENDID  363 

of  the  thumb?  Jean!  Jean!  woman,"  he  cried, 
across  the  chamber  to  his  callet,  and  over  she 
came  to  a  very  indifferent  and  dubious  chent. 

I  had  got  my  hand  read  a  score  of  times  ere 
this  (for  I  am  of  a  nature  curious  and  prying),  and 
each  time  the  reading  was  different,  but  it  did  not 
altogether  shake  my  faith  in  wise  women,  so  half 
for  the  fun  of  it,  I  put  some  silver  pieces  in  the 
loof  of  my  hand  and  held  it  before  the  woman,  the 
transaction  unnoticed  by  the  company.  She  gave 
the  common  harangue  to  start  with.  At  last, 
"  There  's  a  girl  with  a  child,"  said  she. 

"  Faith,  and  she  never  went  to  the  well  with  the 
dish-clout  then,"  said  the  black  man,  using  a  well- 
known  Gaelic  proverb,  meaning  a  compliment  in 
his  dirty  assumption. 

"She's  in  a  place  of  many  houses  now,"  went 
on  the  woman,  busy  upon  the  lines  of  my  hand, 
"  and  her  mind  is  taken  up  with  a  man  in  the  ranks 
of  Argile." 

"  That 's  not  reading  the  hand  at  all,  good  wife," 
said  I ;  "  those  small  facts  of  life  are  never  written 
in  a  line  across  the  loof" 

"  Jean  is  no  apprentice  at  the  trade,"  said  her 
man  across  her  shoulder.  "  She  can  find  a  life's 
history  in  the  space  of  a  hair." 

"  The  man  found  the  woman  and  the  child  under 
a  root  of  fir,"  said  the  woman,  "  and  if  the  man  is 
not  very  quick  to  follow  her,  he  may  find  kinship's 
courting  get  the  better  of  a  far-off  lover's  fancy." 

"'  Dhc !"  said  I;  "you  have  your  story  most 
pat.     And  what  now,  would  you  say,  would  be  the 


364  JOHN    Sl'LKNDID 

end  of  it  all  —  coming  to  the  real  business  of  the 
palmist,  which,  I  take  it,  is  not  to  give  past  history 
but  to  forecast  fate?  " 

I  '11  not  deny  but  I  was  startled  by  the  woman's 
tale,  for  here  was  Betty  and  here  was  MacLachlan 
put  before  me  as  plainly  as  they  were  in  my  own 
mind  day  and  night  since  we  left  Inneraora. 

The  woman  more  closely  scrutinised  my  hand, 
paused  a  while  and  seemed  surprised  herself  at  its 
story. 

"  After  all,"  said  she,  "  the  woman  is  not  going 
to  marry  the  man  she  loves." 

I  plucked  my  hand  away  with  a  "  Pshaw !  what 
does  it  matter?  If  I  doubled  your  fee  you  would 
give  me  the  very  best  fortune  in  your  wit  to 
devise." 

The  Irishman  with  the  silver  eye  here  jostled  a 
merchantman,  who  drew  his  gully-knife,  so  that 
soon  there  was  a  fierce  quarrel  that  it  took  all  the 
landlord's  threats  and  vigour  of  arm  to  put  an  end 
to.  By  this  time  I  was  becoming  tired  of  my  com- 
pany ;  now  that  the  spac-wife  had  planted  the  seed 
of  distress  in  my  mind,  those  people  were  tawdry, 
unclean,  wretched.  They  were  all  in  rags,  foul 
and  smelling;  their  music  was  but  noise  demented. 
I  wondered  at  myself  there  in  so  vicious  a  com- 
pany. And  Betty  —  home  —  love  —  peace  —  how 
all  the  tribe  of  them  suddenly  took  up  every 
corner  of  my  mind.  Oh !  fool,  fool,  I  called  my- 
self, to  be  thinking  your  half-hearted  wooing  of 
the  woman  had  left  any  fondness  behind  it.  From 
the  beginning  you  were  second  in  the  field,  and 


JOHN   SPLENDID  365 

off  the  field  now  —  a  soldier  of  a  disgraced  army, 
has  the  cousin  not  all  the  chances  in  the  world? 
He  '11  be  the  true  friend  in  trouble,  he  '11  console 
her  loneliness  in  a  sacked  burgh  town ;  a  woman's 
affection  is  so  often  her  reward  for  simple  kindness 
that  he  has  got  her  long  ago  at  no  greater  cost 
than  keeping  her  company  in  her  lonely  hours. 
And  you  are  but  the  dreamer,  standing  off  trem- 
bling and  flushing  like  a  boy  when  you  should  be 
boldly  on  her  cheek,  because  you  dare  not  think 
yourself  her  equal.  The  father's  was  the  true 
word :  "  There 's  one  thing  a  woman  will  not 
abide,  that  her  lover  should  think  lightly  either  of 
himself  or  her." 

All  that  black  stream  of  sorry  thought  went 
rushing  through  me  as  I  sat  with  an  empty  jug  in 
my  hand  in  a  room  that  was  sounding  like  a 
market-place.  With  a  start  I  wakened  up  to  find 
the  landlord  making  a  buffoon's  attempt  at  a  dance 
in  the  middle  of  the  floor  to  the  tune  of  the  Jew's- 
trump,  a  transparent  trick  to  restore  the  good 
humour  of  his  roysterers,  and  the  black  man  who 
had  fetched  the  spae-wife  was  standing  at  my  side 
surveying  me  closely  out  at  the  corner  of  his  eyes. 
I  stood  to  my  feet  and  ganted  with  great  delibera- 
tion to  pretend  I  had  been  half-sleeping.  He 
yawned,  too,  but  with  such  obvious  pretence  that 
I  could  not  but  laugh  at  him,  and  he  smiled 
knowingly  back. 

"  Well,"  said  he  in  English,  "  you  '11  allow  it 's  a 
fair  imitation,  for  I  never  heard  that  a  put-on  gant 
was  smittal.     I  see  that  you  are  put  about  at  my 


366  JOHN   SP^LENDID 

wife's  fortune;  she's  a  miracle  at  the  business,  as 
I  said ;  she  has  some  secrets  of  fate  I  would  rather 
with  her  than  me.  But  I  would  swear  a  man  may 
sometime  get  the  better  even  of  fate  if  he  has  a 
warning  of  its  approach." 

"  I  can  scarcely  see  that  by  the  logic  of  Por- 
phyrius  or  Peter  Hispanus  with  the  categories,  two 
scholars  I  studied  at  Glascow.  But  you  are  surely 
a  queer  man  to  be  a  vagabond  at  the  petticoat-tails 
of  a  spae-wife,"  said  I. 

"  I  've  had  my  chance  of  common  life,  city  and 
town,  and  the  company  of  ladies  with  broidery  and 
camisole  and  washen  faces,"  he  answered,  with  no 
hesitation,  "and  give  me  the  highroad  and  freedom 
and  the  very  brute  of  simplicity.  I  'm  not  of  these 
parts.  I  'm  not  of  the  Highlands  at  all,  as  you 
may  guess,  though  I  've  been  in  them  and  through 
them  for  many  a  day.  I  see  you  're  still  vexed 
about  my  woman's  reading  of  your  palm.  It 
seems  to  have  fitted  in  with  some  of  your  expe- 
rience." 

I  confessed  her  knowledge  of  my  private  affairs 
surprised  me,  and  his  black  eyes  twinkled  with 
humour. 

"  I  '11  explain  the  puzzle  for  just  as  much  money 
as  you  gave  her,"  said  he,  "  and  leave  you  more 
satisfied  at  the  end  than  she  did.  And  there  's  no 
black  art  at  the  bottom  of  my  skill,  either." 

"  Very  well,"  said  I ;  "  here 's  your  drink-money  ; 
now  tell  mc  the  trick  of  it,  for  trick  I  suppose 
it  is." 

He  pocketed  the  mono}-  after  a  vagabond's  spit 


JOHN   SPLENDID  367 

on  the  coin  for  luck,  and  in  twenty  words  exposed 
his  by-love's  device.  They  had  just  come  from 
Inneraora  two  or  three  days  before,  and  the  tale  of 
the  Provost's  daughter  in  Strongara  had  been  the 
talk  of  the  town. 

"  But  how  did  your  wife  guess  the  interest  of  the 
lady  in  a  man  of  Argile's  army?"  I  asked. 

"  Because  she  spaed  the  lady's  fortune  too,"  he 
answered,  "  and  she  had  to  find  out  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood what  it  was  like  to  be  before  she  did  so ; 
you  know  that  is  half  the  art  of  the  thing." 

"  Yet  your  woman's  guess  that  I  was  the  man  — 
that 's  beyond  me  !  " 

"  I  was  struck  myself  when  she  out  with  that," 
he  confessed.  "  Oh,  she  's  a  deep  one,  Jean  !  But 
your  manner  and  tongue  betrayed  the  returned 
soldier  of  fortune ;  of  such  officers  in  the  ranks  of 
Argile  there  are  not  so  many  that  it  was  risking 
too  much  to  believe  all  of  them  knew  the  story  of 
the  Provost's  daughter,  and  your  conduct,  once  she 
got  that  length,  did  the  rest." 

"And  about  kinship's  courting?"  I  asked, 
amazed  at  the  simplicity  of  the  thing. 

The  man  dashed  his  fee  on  the  board  and 
ordered   more  liquor. 

"  Drink  up,"  said  he,  "  and  drown  care  if  you  're 
the  man  my  good  wife  thought  you,  for  faith  there  's 
a  little  fellow  from  over  the  loch  making  himself 
very  snug  in  the  lady's  company  in  your  absence." 

There  was  no  more  drinking  for  me ;  the  fumes 
of  this  wretched  company  stank  in  my  nostrils  and 
I  must  be  off  to  be  alone  with  melancholy.     Up  I 


368  JOHN   SPLENDID 

got  and  walked  to  the  door  with  not  fair-good-e'cn 
nor  fair-good-day,  and  I  walked  through  the  be- 
ginnings of  a  drab  disheartening  dawn  in  the  direc- 
tion that  I  guessed  would  lead  me  soonest  to 
Bredalbane.  I  walked  with  a  mind  painfully 
downcast,  and  it  was  not  till  I  reached  a  little  hill- 
ock a  good  distance  from  the  inns  at  Tynree,  a 
hillock  clothed  with  saugh  saplings  and  conspic- 
uously high  over  the  flat  country-side,  that  I 
looked  about  me  to  see  where  I  was. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  369 


CHAPTER  XXVni 

I  STOOD  on  the  hillock  clothed  with  its  stunted 
saugh-trees  and  waited  for  the  day  that  was 
mustering  somewhere  to  the  east,  far  by  the 
frozen  sea  of  moss  and  heather  tuft.  A  sea 
more  lonely  than  any  ocean  the  most  wide  and 
distant,  where  no  ship  heaves,  and  no  isle  lifts 
beckoning  trees  above  the  level  of  the  waves ;  a 
sea  soundless,  with  no  life  below  its  lamentable 
surface,  no  little  fish  or  proud  leviathan  plunging 
and  romping  and  flashing  from  the  silver  roof  of 
fretted  wave  dishevelled  to  the  deep  profound. 
The  moorfowl  does  not  cry  there,  the  coney  has 
no  habitation.  It  rolled,  that  sea  so  sour,  so 
curdled,  from  my  feet  away  to  mounts  I  knew  by 
day  stupendous  and  not  so  far,  but  now  in  the 
dark  so  hid  that  they  were  but  troubled  clouds 
upon  the  distant  marge.  There  was  a  day  surely 
when,  lashing  up  on  those  hills  around,  were  waters 
blue  and  stinging,  and  some  plague-breath  blew 
on  them  and  they  shiv^ercd  and  dried  and  cracked 
into  this  parched  semblance  of  what  they  were  in 
the  old  days  when  the  galleys  sailed  over.  No 
galleys  now.  No  white  birds  calling  eagerly  in 
the  storm.  No  silver  bead  of  spray.  Only  in  its 
season  the  cannoch  tuft,  and  that  itself  but  sparsely; 

-4 


370  JOHN   SPLENDID 

the  very  bluebell  shuns  a  track  so  desolate,  the 
sturdy  gall  itself  finds  no  nourishment  here. 

The  gray  day  crept  above  the  land.  I  watched 
it  from  my  hillock,  and  I  shrunk  in  my  clothing 
that  seemed  so  poor  a  shielding  in  a  land  so  chill. 
A  cold,  clammy  dawn,  that  nev^er  cleared  even  as 
it  aged,  but  held  a  hint  of  mist  to  come  that  should 
have  warned  me  of  the  danger  I  faced  in  venturing 
on  the  untravcllcd  surface  of  the  moor,  even  upon 
its  safer  verge.  But  it  seemed  so  simple  a  thing  to 
keep  low  to  the  left  and  down  on  Glenurchy  that  I 
thought  little  of  the  risk,  if  I  reflected  upon  it 
at  all. 

Some  of  the  stupidity  of  my  venturing  out  on 
the  surface  of  Rannoch  that  day  must  have  been 
due  to  my  bodily  state.  I  was  not  all  there,  as  the 
saying  goes.  I  was  suffering  mind  and  body  from 
the  strain  of  my  adventures,  and  most  of  all  from 
the  stormy  thrashings  of  the  few  days  before;  the 
long  journey,  the  want  of  reasonable  sleep  and  food. 
There  had  come  over  all  my  spirit  a  kind  of  dwam, 
so  that  at  times  my  head  seemed  as  if  it  were 
stuffed  with  wool;  what  mattered  was  of  no  ac- 
count, even  if  it  were  a  tinker's  death  in  the  shcuch. 
No  words  will  describe  the  feeling  except  to  such 
as  themselves  have  known  it;  it  is  the  condition  of 
the  man  dead  with  care  and  weariness  so  far  as 
the  body  is  concerned,  and  his  spirit,  sorry  to 
part  company,  goes  lugging  his  flesh  about  the 
highwa\'s. 

I  was  well  out  on  Rannoch  before  the  day  was 
full  awake  on  the  country,  walking  at  great  trouble 


JOHN    SPLENDID  371 

upon  the  coarse  barren  soil,  among  rotten  bog- 
grass,  lichened  stones,  and  fir-roots  that  thrust  from 
the  black  peat-like  skeletons  of  antiquity.  And 
then  I  came  on  a  cluster  of  lochs  —  gray,  cold, 
vagrant  lochs  —  still  to  some  degree  in  the  thrall 
of  frost  Here  's  one  who  has  ever  a  fancy  for 
such  lochans,  that  are  lost  and  sobbing,  sobbing, 
even  on  among  the  hills,  where  the  reeds  and  the 
rushes  hiss  in  the  wind,  and  the  fowls  with  sheeny 
feather  make  night  and  day  cheery  with  their  call. 
But  not  those  lochs  of  Rannoch,  those  black  basins 
crumbling  at  the  edge  of  a  rotten  soil.  I  skirted 
them  as  far  off  as  I  could,  as  though  they  were  the 
lochans  of  a  nightmare  that  drag  the  traveller  to 
their  kelpie  tenants'  arms.  There  were  no  birds 
among  those  rushes ;  I  think  the  very  deer  that 
roamed  in  the  streets  of  Inneraora  in  the  Novem- 
ber's blast  would  have  run  far  clear  of  so  stricken 
a  territory.  It  must  be  horrible  in  snow,  it  must 
be  lamentable  in  the  hottest  days  of  summer,  when 
the  sun  rides  over  the  land,  for  what  does  the  most 
kindly  season  bring  to  this  forsaken  place  except  a 
scorching  for  the  fugitive  wild  flower,  if  such  there 
be? 

These  were  not  my  thoughts  as  I  walked  on  my 
way;  they  are  what  lie  in  my  mind  of  the  feelings 
the  Moor  of  Rannoch  will  rouse  in  every  stranger. 
What  was  in  my  mind  most  when  I  was  not 
altogether  in  the  swound  of  wearied  flesh  was  the 
spae-wife's  story  of  the  girl  in  Inneraora,  and  a 
jealousy  so  strong  that  I  wondered  where,  in  all 
my  exhausted  frame,  the  passion  for  it  came  from. 


372  JOHN   SPLENDID 

I  forgot  my  friends  left  in  Dalncss,  I  forgot  that 
my  compact  and  prudence  itself  called  for  my 
hurrying  the  quickest  way  I  could  to  the  Brig  of 
Urchy;  I  walked  in  an  indifference  until  I  saw 
a  wan  haze  spread  fast  over  the  country  in  the 
direction  of  the  lower  hills  that  edged  the  desert.  I 
looked  with  a  careless  eye  on  it  at  first,  not  reflect- 
ing what  it  might  mean  or  how  much  it  might 
lead  to.  It  spread  with  exceeding  quickness,  a 
gray  silver  smoke  rolling  out  on  every  hand,  as  if 
puffed  continually  from  some  glen  in  the  hills.  I 
looked  behind  me,  and  saw  that  the  same  was 
happening  all  around.  Unless  I  made  speed  out 
of  this  sorrowful  place  I  was  caught  in  the  mist. 
Then  I  came  to  the  full  understanding  that  trouble 
was  to  face.  I  tightened  the  thongs  of  my  shoes, 
pinched  up  a  hole  in  my  waistbelt,  scrugged  my 
bonnet,  and  set  out  at  a  deer-stalker's  run  across 
the  moor.  I  splashed  in  hags  and  stumbled  among 
roots ;  I  made  wild  leaps  across  poisonous-looking 
holes  stewing  to  the  brim  with  coloured  water ;  I 
made  long  detours  to  find  the  most  fordable  part  of 
a  stream  that  twisted  back  and  forth,  a  very  devil's 
can'.rip,  upon  my  way.  Then  a  smirr  of  rain  came 
at  my  back  and  chilled  me  to  the  marrow,  though  the 
sweat  of  travail  a  moment  before  had  been  on  every 
part  of  me,  and  even  dripping  in  beads  from  my  chin. 
At  length  I  lifted  my  eyes  from  the  ground  that  I 
had  to  scan  most  carefully  in  my  running,  and  be- 
hold !  I  was  swathed  in  a  dense  mist  that  cut  off 
every  view  of  the  world  within  ten  yards  of  where 
I  stood.     This  cruel  experience  dashed  me  more 


JOHN   SPLENDID  373 

than  any  other  misadventure  in  all  my  wanderings, 
for  it  cut  me  off,  without  any  hope  of  speedy 
betterment,  from  the  others  of  our  broken  band. 
They  might  be  all  at  Urchy  Bridge  by  now,  on  the 
very  selvedge  of  freedom,  but  I  was  couped  by  the 
heels  more  disastrously  than  ever.  Down  I  sat  on 
a  tuft  of  moss,  and  I  felt  cast  upon  the  dust  by  a 
most  cruel  providence. 

How  long  I  sat  there  I  cannot  tell ;  it  may  have 
been  a  full  hour  or  more ;  it  may  have  been  but  a 
pause  of  some  minutes,  for  I  was  in  a  stupor  of 
bitter  disappointment.  And  when  I  rose  again  I 
was  the  sport  of  chance,  for  whether  my  way  lay 
before  me  or  lay  behind  me,  or  to  left  or  right,  was 
altogether  beyond  my  decision.  It  was  well  on  in 
the  day ;  high  above  this  stagnant  plain  among  tall 
bens  there  must  be  shining  a  friendly  and  constant 
sun;  but  Elrigmore,  gentleman  and  sometimes 
cavalier  of  Mackay's  Scots,  was  in  the  very  gullet 
of  night  for  all  he  could  see  around  him.  It  was 
folly,  I  knew;  but  on  somewhere  I  must  be  going, 
so  I  took  to  where  my  nose  led,  picking  my  way 
with  new  caution  among  the  bogs  and  boulders. 
The  neighbourhood  of  the  lochs  was  a  sort  of 
guidance  in  some  degree,  for  their  immediate 
presence  gave  to  a  nostril  sharpened  by  life  in  the 
wild  a  moist  and  peaty  odour  fresh  from  the 
corroding  banks.  I  sought  them  and  I  found 
them,  and  finding  them  I  found  a  danger  even 
greater  than  my  loss  in  that  desolate  plain.  For 
in  the  gray  smoke  of  mist  those  treacherous  pools 
crept  noiselessly  to  my  feet,  and  once  I  had  almost 


374  JOHN   SPLENDID 

walked  blindly  into  an  ice-clear  turgid  little  lake. 
My  foot  sank  in  the  mire  of  it  almost  up  to  the 
knees  ere  I  jumped  to  the  nature  of  my  neighbour- 
hood, and  with  an  effort  little  short  of  miraculous 
in  the  state  of  my  body,  threw  myself  back  on  the 
safe  bank,  clear  of  the  death-trap.  And  again  I 
sat  on  a  hillock  and  surrendered  to  the  most  dole- 
ful meditations.  Noon  came  and  went,  the  rain 
passed  and  came  again,  and  passed  once  more, 
and  still  I  was  guessing"  my  way  about  the  lochs, 
making  no  headway  from  their  neighbourhood,  and, 
to  tell  the  truth,  a  little  glad  of  the  same,  for  they 
were  all  I  knew  of  the  landscape  in  Moor  Rannoch, 
and  something  of  friendship  was  in  their  treacher- 
ous presence,  and  to  know  they  were  still  beside 
me,  though  it  said  little  for  my  progress  to  Glen- 
urchy,  was  an  assurance  that  I  was  not  making  my 
position  worse  by  going  in  the  wrong  airt. 

All  about  mc,  when  the  rain  was  gone  for  the 
last  time,  there  was  a  cry  of  weeping  and  wailing 
waters,  the  voices  of  the  burns  running  into  the 
lochans,  tinkling,  tinkling,  tinkling  merrily,  and  all 
out  of  key  with  a  poor  wretch  in  draggled  tartans, 
fleeing  he  knew  not  whither,  but  going  about  in 
shortened  circles,  like  a  hedgehog  in  the  sea. 

The  mist  made  no  sign  of  lifting  all  this  time, 
but  shrouded  the  country  as  if  it  were  come  to 
stay  for  ever,  and  I  was  doomed  to  remain  till  the 
end,  guessing  my  way  to  death  in  a  silver-gray 
reek.  I  strained  my  ears,  and  far  off  to  the  right 
I  heard  the  sound  of  cattle  bellowing,  the  snorting 
low  of  a  stirk  upon  the  hillside  wlien  he  wondens 


JOHN    SPLENDID  375 

at  the  lost  pastures  of  his  calfhood  in  the  merry 
summer  before.  So  out  I  set  in  that  direction, 
and  more  bellowing  arose,  and  by-and-by,  out  of 
the  mist  but  still  far  off,  came  a  long,  low  wail  that 
baffled  me.  It  was  like  no  sound  nature  ever  con- 
ferred on  the  Highlands,  to  my  mind,  unless  the 
rare  call  of  the  Benderloch  wolf  in  rigorous 
weather.  I  stopped  and  listened,  with  my  inner 
head  cracking  to  the  strain,  and  as  I  was  thus 
standing  in  wonder,  a  great  form  leaped  out  at  me 
from  the  mist,  and  almost  ran  over  me  ere  it 
lessened  to  the  semblance  of  a  man,  and  I  had 
John  M'lver  of  Barbreck,  a  heated  and  hurried 
gentleman  of  arms,  in  my  presence. 

He  drew  up  with  a  shock,  put  his  hand  to  his 
vest,  and  I  could  see  him  cross  himself  under  the 
jacket. 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it,"  I  cried  ;  "  no  wraith  nor  war- 
lock this  time,  friend,  but  flesh  and  blood.  Yet 
I  'm  bound  to  say  I  have  never  been  nearer  ghost- 
dom  than  now;  a  day  of  this  moor  would  mean 
death  to  me." 

He  shook  me  hurriedly  and  warmly  by  the 
hand,  and  stared  in  my  face,  and  stammered,  and 
put  an  arm  about  my  waist  as  if  I  were  a  girl,  and 
turned  me  about  and  led  me  to  a  little  tree  that 
lifted  its  barren  branches  above  the  moor.  He 
was  in  such  a  confusion  and  hurry  that  I  knew 
something  troubled  him,  so  I  left  him  to  choose 
his  own  time  for  explanation.  When  we  got  to 
the  tree,  he  showed  me  his  black  knife  —  an  extra 
long  and   deadly   weapon  —  laid   along   his   waist. 


376  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  "  Out  dirk,"  said  he,  "  there  's  a  dog  or  two  of 
Italy  on  my  track  here."  His  mind,  by  the  stress 
of  his  words,  was  Hke  a  hurricane. 

Now,  I  knew  something  of  the  Black  Dogs  of 
Italy,  as  they  were  called,  the  abominable  hounds 
that  were  kept  by  the  Cameron s  and  others  mainly 
for  the  hunting  down  of  the  Gregarich. 

"  Were  they  close  on  you  ? "  I  asked,  as  wc 
prepared  to  meet  them. 

"  Don't  you  hear  them  bay?  "  said  he.  "  There 
were  three  on  my  track ;  I  struck  one  through  the 
throat  with  my  knife  and  ran,  for  two  Italian 
hounds  to  one  knife  is  a  poor  bargain.  Between 
us  we  should  get  rid  of  them  before  the  owners 
they  lag  for  come  up  on  their  tails." 

"  You  should  thank  God  who  got  you  out  of  a 
trouble  so  deep,"  I  said,  astounded  at  the  miracle 
of  his  escape  so  far. 

"  Oh,  ay  !  "  said  he  ;  "  and  indeed  I  was  pretty 
clever  myself,  or  it  was  all  by  with  me  when  one 
of  the  black  fellows  set  his  fangs  in  my  hose.  Here 
are  his  partners ;  short  work  with  it,  on  the  neck 
or  low  at  the  bi:lly  with  an  up-cut,  and  ward  your 
throat." 

The  two  dogs  ran  with  ferocious  growls  at  us  as 
we  stood  by  the  little  tree,  their  faces  gaping  and 
their  quarters  streaked  with  foam.  Strong,  cruel 
brutes,  they  did  not  swither  a  moment,  but  both 
leaped  at  M'lver's  throat.  With  one  swift  slash  of 
the  knife,  my  companion  almost  cut  the  head  off 
the  body  of  the  first,  and  I  reckoned  with  the 
second.     They  rolled  at  our  feet,  and  a  silence  fell 


JOHN   SPLENDID  377 

on  the  country.  Up  M'lver  put  his  shoulders, 
dighted  his  blade  on  a  tuft  of  bog-grass,  and 
whistled  a  stave  of  the  tune  they  call  "  The  Des- 
perate Battle." 

"  If  I  had  not  my  lucky  penny  with  me  I  would 
wonder  at  this  meeting,"  said  he  at  last,  eyeing  me 
with  a  look  of  real  content  that  he  should  so  soon 
have  fallen  into  my  company  at  a  time  when  a 
meeting  was  so  unlikely.  "  It  has  failed  me  once 
or  twice  on  occasions  far  less  important;  but  that 
was  perhaps  because  of  my  own  fumbling,  and  I 
forgive  it  all  because  it  brought  two  brave  lads 
together  like  barks  of  one  port  on  the  ocean.  '  Up 
or  down?'  I  tossed  when  it  came  to  putting  fast 
heels  below  me,  and  *  up'  won  it,  and  here  's  the 
one  man  in  all  broad  Albainn  I  would  be  seeking 
for,  drops  out  of  the  mist  at  the  very  feet  of  me. 
Oh,  I  'm  the  most  wonderful  fellow  ever  stepped 
heather,  and  I  could  be  making  a  song  on  myself 
there  and  then  if  occasion  allowed.  Some  people 
have  genius,  and  that,  I  'm  telling  you,  is  well 
enough  so  far  as  it  goes ;  but  I  have  luck  too,  and 
I  'm  not  so  sure  but  luck  is  a  hantle  sight  better 
than  genius.  I  'm  guessing  you  have  lost  your  way 
in  the  mist  now?  " 

He  looked  quizzingly  at  me,  and  I  was  almost 
ashamed  to  admit  that  I  had  been  in  a  maze  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  morning. 

"  And  no  skill  for  getting  out  of  it?  "  he  asked. 

"  No  more  than  you  had  in  getting  into  it,"  I 
confessed. 

"  My  good  scholar,"  said  he,  "  I  could  walk  you 


378  JOHN   SPLENDID 

out  into  a  drove-road  in  the  time  )'on  would  be 
picking  the  bog  from  your  feet.  I  'm  not  making 
any  brag  of  an  art  that 's  so  common  among  old 
hunters  as  the  snaring  of  conies ;  but  give  me  a 
bush  or  a  tree  here  and  there  in  a  flat  land  like 
this,  and  an  herb  here  and  there  at  my  feet,  and 
while  winds  from  the  north  blow  snell,  I  '11  pick 
my  way  by  them.  It 's  my  notion  that  they  learn 
one  many  things  at  colleges  that  are  no  great 
value  in  the  real  trials  of  life.  You,  I  make  no 
doubt,  would  be  kenning  the  name  of  an  herb  in 
the  Latin,  and  I  have  but  the  Gaelic  for  it,  and 
that 's  good  enough  for  me ;  but  I  ken  the  use  of 
it  as  a  traveller's  friend  whenever  rains  are  smirring 
and  mists  are  blowing." 

"  I  daresay  there 's  much  in  what  you  state," 
I  confessed,  honestly  enough ;  "  I  wish  I  could 
change  some  of  my  schooling  for  the  art  of  winning 
off  Moor  Rannoch." 

He  changed  his  humour  in  a  flash.  "  Man," 
said  he,  "  I  'm  maybe  giving  myself  over-much 
credit  at  woodcraft ;  it 's  so  seldom  I  put  it  to  the 
trial  that  if  we  get  clear  of  the  Moor  before  night 
it'll  be  as  much  to  your  credit  as  to  mine." 

As  it  happened  his  vanity  about  his  gift  got  but 
a  brief  gratification,  for  he  had  not  led  me  by  his 
signs  more  than  a  mile  on  the  way  to  the  south 
than  we  came  again  to  a  cluster  of  lochans,  and 
among  them  a  large  fellow  called  Loch  Ba,  where 
the  mist  was  lifting  quickly.  Through  the  cleared 
air  wc  travelled  at  a  good  speed,  off  the  Moor, 
among  Bredalbane  braes,  and  fast  though  we  went 


JOHN    SPLENDID  379 

it  was  a  weary  march,  but  at  last  wc  reached  Loch 
Tulla,  and  from  there  to  the  Bridge  of  Urchy  was 
no  more  than  a  meridian  daimder. 

The  very  air  seemed  to  change  to  a  kinder  feel- 
ing in  this,  the  frontier  of  the  home-land.  A  scent 
of  wet  birk  was  in  the  wind.  The  river,  hurrying 
through  grassy  levels,  glucked  and  clattered  and 
plopped  most  gaily,  and  bubble  chased  bubble  as 
if  all  were  in  a  haste  to  reach  Lochow  of  the  bosky 
isles  and  holy.  Oh  !  but  it  was  heartsome,  and  as 
we  rested  ourselves  a  little  on  the  banks  we  were 
full  of  content  to  think  we  were  now  in  a  friendly 
country,  and  it  was  a  fair  pleasure  to  think  that 
the  dead  leaves  and  broken  branches  we  threw  in 
the  stream  would  be  dancing  in  all  likelihood  round 
the  isle  of  Innishael  by  nightfall. 

We  ate  our  chack  with  exceeding  content  and 
waited  for  a  time  on  the  chance  that  some  of  our 
severed  company  from  Dalness  would  appear, 
though  MTver's  instruction  as  to  the  rendezvous 
had  been  given  on  the  prospect  that  they  would 
reach  the  Brig  earlier  in  the  day.  But  after  an 
hour  or  two  of  waiting  there  was  no  sign  of  them, 
and  there  was  nothing  for  us  but  to  assume  that 
they  had  reached  the  Brig  by  noon  as  agreed  on 
and  passed  on  their  way  down  the  glen.  A  signal 
held  together  by  two  stones  on  the  glen-side  of  the 
Brig  indeed  confirmed  this  notion  almost  as  soon 
as  we  formed  it,  and  we  were  annoyed  that  we  had 
not  observed  it  sooner.  Three  sprigs  of  gall,  a 
leaf  of  ivy  from  the  bridge  arch  where  it  grew  in 
dark   green   sprays  of  glossy    sheen,    and   a   bare 


38o  JOHN   SPLENDID 

twig  of  oak  standing  up  at  a  slant  were  held  down 
on  the  parapet  by  a  peeled  willow  withy,  one  end 
of  which  pointed  in  the  direction  of  the  glen. 

It  was  M'lver  who  came  on  the  symbols  first, 
and  "  We  're  a  day  behind  the  fair,"  said  he. 
"  Our  friends  are  all  safe  and  on  their  way  before 
us ;   look  at  that." 

I  confessed  I  was  no  hand  at  puzzles. 

"  Man,"  he  said,  "  there  's  a  whole  history  in  it ! 
Three  sprigs  of  gall  mean  three  Campbells,  do 
they  not?  and  that's  the  baron-bailie  and  Sona- 
chan,  and  this  one  with  the  leaves  off  the  half  side 
is  the  fellow  with  the  want.  And  oak  is  Stewart  — • 
a  very  cunning  clan  to  be  fighting  or  fraying  or 
travelling  with,  for  this  signal  is  Stewart's  work,  or 
I  'm  a  fool ;  the  others  had  not  the  gumption  for 
it.  And  what 's  the  ivy  but  Clan  Gordon,  and  the 
peeled  withy  but  hurry,  and  —  surely  that  will  be 
doing  for  the  reading  of  a  very  simple  tale.  Let 
us  be  taking  our  ways.  I  have  a  great  admiration 
for  Stewart  that  he  managed  to  do  so  well  with  this 
thing,  but  I  could  have  bettered  that  sign  if  it  were 
mine  by  a  chapter  or  two  more." 

"  It  contains  a  wonderful  deal  of  matter  for  the 
look  of  it,"  I  confessed, 

"  And  yet,"  said  he,  "  it  leaves  out  two  points  I 
consider  of  the  greatest  importance.  Where  's  the 
Dark  Dame,  and  when  did  our  friends  pass  this 
way?  A  few  chucky-stones  would  have  left  the 
hour  plain  to  our  view,  and  there  's  no  word  of  the 
old  lady." 

I  thought  for  a  second,  then,  "  I  can  read  ?•  bit 


JOHN   SPLENDID  381 

further  myself,"  said  I;  "for  there's  no  hint  here 
of  the  Dark  Dame  because  she  was  not  here. 
They  left  the  s?iaichcantas  just  of  as  many  as 
escaped  from " 

"  And  so  they  did  !  Where  are  my  wits  to  miss 
a  tale  so  plain?  "  said  he.  "  She  '11  be  in  Dalness 
yet,  perhaps  better  off  than  scouring  the  wilds,  for 
after  all  even  the  MacDonalds  are  human,  and  a 
half-wit  widow  woman  would  be  sure  of  their 
clemency.  It  was  very  clever  of  you  to  think  of 
that  now." 

I  looked  again  at  the  oak-stem,  still  sticking  up 
at  the  slant.  "  It  might  as  well  have  lain  flat  under 
the  peeled  wand  like  the  others,"  I  thought,  and 
then  the  reason  for  its  position  flashed  on  me. 
It  was  with  just  a  touch  of  vanity  I  said  to  my 
friend,  "  A  little  coUeging  may  be  of  some  use  at 
woodcraft,  too,  if  it  sharpens  Elrigmore's  wits 
enough  to  read  the  signs  that  Barbreck's  eagle  eye 
can  find  nothing  in.  I  could  tell  the  very  hour  our 
friends  left  here." 

"  Not  on  their  own  marks,"  he  replied  sharply, 
casting  his  eyes  very  quickly  again  on  twig  and 
leaf 

"  On  nothing  else,"  said  I. 

He  looked  again,  flushed  with  vexation,  and 
cried  himself  beat  to  make  more  of  it  than  he  had 
done. 

"  What 's  the  oak  branch  put  so  for,  with  its 
point  to  the  sky,  if ?" 

"  I  have  you  now  !  "  he  cried  ;  "  it 's  to  show  the 
situation  of  the  sun  when  they  left  the  rendezvous. 


382  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Three  o'clock,  and  no  mist  with  them ;  good  lad, 
good  lad !  Well,  we  must  be  going.  And  now 
that  we  're  on  the  safe  side  of  Argile  there  's  only 
one  thing  vexing  me,  that  we  might  have  been 
here  and  all  together  half  a  day  ago  if  yon  whelp 
of  a  whey-faced  MacDonald  in  the  bed  had  been 
less  of  the  fox." 

"  Indeed  and  he  might  have  been,"  said  I,  as 
we  pursued  our  way.  "  A  common  feeling  of 
gratitude  for  the  silver " 

"  Gratitude  !  "  cried  John,  "  say  no  more  ;  you 
have  fathomed  the  cause  of  his  bitterness  at  the 
first  trial.  If  I  had  been  a  boy  in  a  bed  myself, 
and  some  reckless  soldiery  of  a  foreign  clan,  out 
of  a  Sassenach  notion  of  decency,  insulted  my 
mother  and  my  home  with  a  covert  gift  of  coin  to 
pay  for  a  night's  lodging,  I  would  throw  it  in  their 
faces  and  follow  it  up  with  stones." 

Refreshed  by  our  rest  and  heartened  by  our 
meal,  we  took  to  the  drove-road  almost  with 
lightness,  and  walked  through  the  evening  till  the 
moon,  the  same  that  gleamed  on  Loch  Linnhe  and 
Lochiel,  and  lighted  Argile  to  the  doom  of  his 
reputation  for  the  time  being,  swept  a  path  of  gold 
upon  Lochow,  still  hampered  with  broken  ice. 
The  air  was  still,  there  was  no  snow,  and  at  Corry- 
ghoil,  the  first  house  of  any  dignity  wc  came  to, 
we  went  up  and  stayed  with  the  tenant  till  the 
morning.  And  there  we  learned  that  the  minister 
and  the  three  Campbells  and  Stewart,  the  last  with 
a  bullet  in  his  shoulder,  had  passed  through  early 
in  the  afternoon  on  their  way  to  Cladich. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  383 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

We  got  a  cold  welcome  from  the  women  of  our 
own  clan  and  country.  They  had  been  very  warm 
and  flattering  as  we  passed  north;  the  best  they 
had  was  not  good  enough  for  us ;  now  they  eyed 
us  askance  as  we  went  among  them  in  the  morn- 
ing. Glenurchy  at  its  foot  was  wailing  with  one 
loud  unceasing  coronach  made  up  of  many  lamen- 
tations, for  no  poor  croft,  no  keep,  no  steading 
in  all  the  countryside  almost,  but  had  lost  its 
man  at  Inverlochy.  It  was  terrible  to  hear  those 
sounds  and  see  those  sights  of  frantic  women  set- 
ting every  thought  of  life  aside  to  give  themelves 
wholly  to  their  epitaphs  for  the  men  who  would 
come  no  more. 

For  ordinary  our  women  keen  but  when  they 
are  up  in  years  and  without  the  flowers  of  the 
cheek  that  the  salt  tear  renders  ugly;  women  who 
have  had  good  practice  with  grief,  who  are  so  far 
off  from  the  fore-world  of  childhood  where  heaven 
is  about  the  dubs  of  the  door  that  they  find  some- 
thing of  a  dismal  pleasure  in  making  wails  for  a 
penny  or  two  or  a  cogie  of  soldier's  brose.  They 
would  as -soon  be  weeping  as  singing;  have  you 
not  seen  them  hurrying  to  the  hut  to  coronach 
upon  a  corpse,  with  the  eager  step  of  girls  going 
to  the  last   dance   of   the   harvest  ?      Beldames, 


384  JOHN   SPLENDID 

witches,  I  hate  your  dirges,  that  arc  but  an  old 
custom  of  lamentation !  But  Glenurchy  and 
Lochow  to-day  depended  for  their  sorrow  upon 
no  hired  mourners,  upon  no  aged  play-actors  at 
the  passion  of  grief;  cherry-cheeked  maidens 
wept  as  copiously  as  their  grand-dames,  and  so 
this  universal  coronach  that  rose  and  fell  on  the 
wind  round  by  Stronmealachan  and  Inishtrynich, 
and  even  out  upon  the  little  isles  that  snuggle  in 
the  shadow  of  Cruachan  Ben  had  many  an  unac- 
customed note ;  many  a  cry  of  anguish  from  the 
deepest  well  of  sorrow  came  to  the  ear.  To  walk 
by  a  lake  and  hear  grief's  chant  upon  neighbour- 
ing isles  is  the  chief  of  the  Hundred  Dolours. 
Of  itself  it  was  enough  to  make  us  melancholy 
and  bitter,  but  it  was  worse  to  sec  in  the  faces  of 
old  women  and  men  who  passed  us  surly  on  the 
road,  the  grudge  that  we  had  been  spared,  we 
gentlemen  in  the  relics  of  fine  garments,  while 
their  own  lads  had  been  taken.  It  was  half  envy 
that  we,  and  not  their  own,  still  lived,  and  half 
anger  that  we  had  been  useless  in  preventing  the 
slaughter  of  their  kinsmen.  As  we  walked  in 
their  averted  or  surly  looks,  we  had  no  heart  to 
resent  them,  for  was  it  not  human  nature.''  Even 
when  a  very  old  crooked  man  with  a  beard  like 
the  foam  of  the  linn,  and  eyes  worn  deep  in  their 
black  sockets  by  constant  staring  upon  care,  and 
through  the  black  mystery  of  life,  stood  at  his 
door  among  his  wailing  daughters,  and  added  to 
his  rhyming  a  scurrilous  verse  whereof  we  were 
the  subjects,  we  did  no  more  than  hurry  our  pace. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  385 

By  the  irony  of  nature  it  was  a  day  bright  and 
sunny,  the  lo7idubh  parted  his  beak  of  gold  and 
warbled  flutey  from  the  grove,  indifferent  to  all 
this  sorrow  of  the  human  world.  Only  in  far-up 
gashes  of  the  hills  was  there  any  remnant  of  the 
snow  we  had  seen  cover  the  country  like  a  cloak 
but  a  few  days  before.  The  crows  moved  briskly 
about  in  the  trees  of  Cladich,  and  in  roupy  voices 
said  it  might  be  February  of  the  full  dykes  but 
surely  winter  was  over  and  gone.  Lucky  birds ! 
they  were  sure  enough  of  their  meals  among  the 
soft  soil  that  now  followed  the  frost  in  the  fields 
and  gardens ;  but  the  cotters,  when  their  new 
grief  was  weary,  would  find  it  hard  to  secure  a 
dinner  in  all  the  country  once  so  well  provided 
with  herds  and  hunters,   now  reft  of  both. 

I  was  sick  of  this  most  doleful  expedition; 
M'lver  was  no  less,  but  he  mingled  his  pity  for 
the  wretches  about  us  with  a  shrewd  care  for  the 
first  chance  of  helping  some  of  them.  It  came  to 
him  unexpectedly  in  a  dark  corner  of  the  way 
through  Cladich  wood,  where  a  yeld  hind  lay 
with  a  broken  leg  at  the  foot  of  a  creag  or  rock 
upon  which  it  must  have  stumbled.  Up  he  hur- 
ried, and  despatched  and  gralloched  it  with  his 
sgian  dubJi  in  a  twinkling,  and  then  he  ran  back 
to  a  cot  where  women  and  children  half  craved  us 
as  we  passed,  and  took  some  of  them  up  to  this 
lucky  find  and  divided  the  spoil.  It  was  a  thin 
beast,  a  prey  no  doubt  to  the  inclement  weather, 
with  ivy  and  acorn,  its  last  meal,  still  in  its 
paunch. 


386  JOHN   SPLENDID 

It  was  not,  however,  till  we  had  got  clown 
Glenaora  as  far  as  Carnus  that  we  found  either 
kindness  or  conversation.  In  that  pleasant  huddle 
of  small  cothouses,  the  Macarthurs,  aye  a  dour 
and  buoyant  race,  were  making  up  their  homes 
again  as  fast  as  they  could,  inspired  by  the  old 
philosophy  that  if  an  inscrutable  God  should  level 
a  poor  man's  dwelling  with  the  dust  of  the  valley, 
he  should  even  take  the  stroke  with  calmness  and 
start  to  the  building  again.  So  the  Macarthurs, 
some  of  them  back  from  their  flight  before  Antrim 
and  Athole,  were  throng  bearing  stone  from  the 
river  and  turf  from  the  brae,  and  setting  up  those 
homes  of  the  poor,  that  have  this  advantage  over 
the  homes  of  the  wealthy,  that  they  are  so  easily 
replaced.  In  this  same  Carnus,  in  later  years,  I 
have  made  a  meal  that  showed  curiously  the 
resource  of  its  people.  Hunting  one  day,  I  went 
to  a  little  cothouse  there  and  asked  for  something 
to  eat.  A  field  of  unreaped  barley  stood  ripe 
and  dry  before  the  door.  Out  the  housewife  went 
and  cut  some  straws  of  it,  while  her  daughter 
shook  cream  in  a  bottle,  chanting  a  churn-charm 
the  while.  The  straw  was  burned  to  dry  the 
grain,  the  breeze  win'd  it,  the  quern  ground  it, 
the  fire  cooked  the  bannocks  of  it.  Then  a  cow 
was  milked,  a  couple  of  eggs  were  found  in  the 
loft,  and  I  sat  down  in  a  marvellously  short  space 
of  time  to  bread  and  butter,  milk,  eggs,  and  a 
little  drop  of  spirits  that  was  the  only  ready-made 
provand  in  the  house.  And  though  now  they 
were   divided  between  the  making   of  coronachs 


JOHN   SPLENDID  387 

and  the  building  of  their  homes,  they  had  still 
the  art  to  pick  a  dinner,  as  it  were,  off  the  lich- 
ened  stone. 

There  was  one  they  called  Niall  Mor  a  Chamais 
(Big  Neil  of  Kames),  who  in  his  day  won  the 
applause  of  courts  by  slaying  the  Italian  bully 
who  bragged  Scotland  for  power  of  thew,  and  I 
liked  Niall  Mor's  word  to  us  as  we  proceeded  on 
our  way  to  Inneraora. 

"Don't  think,"  said  he,  "that  MacCailein 's 
beat  yet,  or  that  the  boar's  tusks  are  reaped  from 
his  jaw.  I  am  of  an  older  clan  than  Campbell, 
and  closer  on  Diarmaid  than  Argile  himself;  but 
we  are  all  under  the  one  banner  now,  and  I  '11 
tell  you  two  gentlemen  something.  They  may 
tear  Castle  Inneraora  out  at  the  roots,  stable  their 
horses  in  the  yard  of  Kilmalieu,  and  tread  real 
Argile  in  the  clay,  but  we'll  be  even  with  them 
yet.  I  have  an  arm  here  "  (and  he  held  up  a 
bloody-looking  limb,  hashed  at  Inverlochy),  "I  '11 
build  my  home  when  this  is  mended,  and  I  '11 
challenge  MacDonald  till  my  mouth  is  gagged 
with  the  clod." 

"And  they  tell  me  your  son  is  dead  yonder,"  I 
said,  pitying  the  old  man  who  had  now  no  wife 
nor  child. 

"So  they  tell  me,"  said  he;  "that  's  the  will  of 
God,  and  better  a  fast  death  on  the  field  than  a 
decline  on  the  feather-bed.  I  '11  be  weeping  for 
my  boy  when  I  have  bigged  my  house  again  and 
paid  a  call  to  some  of  his  enemies." 

Niall  Mor's  philosophy  was  very  much  that  of 


388  JOHN    SPLENDID 

all  the  people  of  the  glen,  such  of  them  as  were 
left.  They  busily  built  their  homes  and  pon- 
dered,  as  they  wrought,   on  the  score  to  pay. 

"That 's  just  like  me,"  M'lver  would  say  after 
speeches  like  that  of  Niall  Mor.  He  was  ever 
one  who  found  of  a  sudden  all  another  person's 
traits  in  his  own  bosom  when  their  existence  was 
first  manifested  to  him.  "That's  just  like  me 
myself;  we  are  a  beaten  clan  (in  a  fashion),  but 
we  have  our  chief  and  many  a  thousand  swords  to 
the  fore  yet.  I  declare  to  you  I  am  quite  cheery 
thinking  we  will  be  coming  back  again  to  those 
glens  and  mounts  we  have  found  so  cruel  because 
of  our  loneliness,  and  giving  the  MacDonalds  and 
the  rest  of  the  duddy  crew  the  sword  in  a  double 
dose." 

"Ay,  John,"  said  I,  "it's  easy  for  you  to  be 
light-hearted  in  the  matter.  You  may  readily 
build  your  bachelor's  house  at  Barbreck,  and  I 
may  set  up  again  the  barn  at  Elrigmore;  but 
where  husband  or  son  is  gone  it  's  a  different 
story.  For  love  is  a  passion  stronger  than  hate. 
Are  you  not  wondering  that  those  good  folk  on 
either  hand  of  us  should  not  be  so  stricken  that 
they  would  be  sitting  in  ashes,  weeping  like 
Rachel  ? " 

"We  are  a  different  stuff  from  the  lady  you 
mention,"  he  said;  "I  am  aye  thinking  the  Al- 
mighty put  us  into  this  land  of  rocks  and  holds, 
and  scalloped  coast,  cold,  hunger,  and  the  chase, 
just  to  keep  ourselves  warm  by  quarrelling  with 
each  other.     If  we  had  not  the   recreation  now 


JOHN   SPLENDID  389 

and  then  of  a  bit  splore  with  the  sword,  we  should 
be  lazily  rotting  to  decay.  The  world  's  well 
divided  after  all,  and  the  happiness  as  well  as  the 
dule  of  it.  It  is  because  I  have  never  had  the 
pleasure  of  wife  nor  child  I  am  a  little  better  off 
to-day  than  the  weeping  folks  about  me,  and  they 
manage  to  make  up  their  share  of  content  with 
reflections  upon  the  sweetness  of  revenge.  There 
was  never  a  man  so  poor  and  miserable  in  this 
world  yet  but  he  had  his  share  of  it,  even  if  he 
had  to  seek  it  in  the  bottle.  Am  n't  I  rather 
clever  to  think  of  it  now?  Have  you  heard  of  the 
idea  in  your  classes.^  " 

"It  is  a  notion  very  antique,"  I  confessed,  to 
his  annoyance;  "but  it  is  always  to  your  credit 
to  have  thought  it  out  for  yourself.  It  is  a  notion 
discredited  here  and  there  by  people  of  judgment, 
but  a  very  comfortable  delusion  (if  it  is  one)  for 
such  as  are  well  off,  and  would  salve  their  con- 
sciences against  the  miseries  of  the  poor  and  dis- 
tressed. And  perhaps,  after  all,  you  and  the 
wise  man  of  old  are  right,  the  lowest  state  —  even 
the  swineherd's  —  may  have  as  many  compensa- 
tions as  that  of  his  master  the  Earl.  It  is  only 
sin,  as  my  father  would  say,  that  keeps  the  soul 
in  a  welter " 

"Does  it  indeed.''"  said  John,  lightly;  "the 
merriest  men  ever  I  met  were  rogues.  I  've  had 
some  vices  myself  in  foreign  countries,  though  I 
aye  had  the  grace  never  to  mention  them,  and  I 
ken  I  ought  to  be  stewing  with  remorse  for  them, 
but  am  I  ?  " 


390  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"Are  you?  "  I  asked. 

"If  you  put  it  so  straight,  I'll  say  No — save 
at  my  best,  and  my  best  is  my  rarest.  But  come, 
come,  we  are  not  going  into  Inneraora  on  a  debate- 
parade;  let  us  change  the  subject.  Do  you  know 
I  'm  like  a  boy  with  a  sweet-cake  in  this  entrance 
to  our  native  place.  I  would  like  not  to  gulp 
down  the  experience  all  at  once  like  a  glutton, 
but  to  nibble  round  the  edges  of  it.  We  '11  take 
the  highway  by  the  shoulder  of  Creag  Dubh,  and 
let  the  loch  slip  into  our  view." 

I  readily  enough  fell  in  with  a  plan  that  took 
us  a  bit  off  our  way,  for  I  was  in  a  glow  of  eager- 
ness and  apprehension.  My  passion  to  come 
home  was  as  great  as  on  the  night  I  rode  up  from 
Skipness  after  my  seven  years  of  war,  even  greater 
perhaps,  for  I  was  returning  to  a  home  now  full 
of  more  problems  than  then.  The  restitution  of 
my  father's  house  was  to  be  set  about,  six  months 
of  hard  stint  were  perhaps  to  be  faced  by  my 
people,  and,  above  all,  I  had  to  find  out  how  it 
stood  between  a  certain  lady  and  me. 

Coming  this  way  from  Lochow,  the  traveller 
will  get  his  first  sight  of  the  waters  of  Loch 
Finne  by  standing  on  a  stone  that  lies  upon  a 
little  knowe  above  his  lordship's  stables.  It  is  a 
spot,  they  say,  Argile  himself  had  a  keen  relish 
for,  and  after  a  day  of  chasing  the  deer  among  the 
hills  and  woods,  sometimes  would  he  come  and 
stand  there  and  look  with  satisfaction  on  his 
country.  For  he  could  see  the  fat,  rich  fields  of 
his  policies  there,  and  the  tumultuous  sea  that 


JOHN   SPLENDID  391 

swarms  with  fish,  and  to  his  left  he  could  witness 
Glenaora  and  all  the  piled-iip  numerous  mountains 
that  are  full  of  story  if  not  of  crop.  To  this  little 
knowe  M'lver  and  I  made  our  way.  I  would  have 
rushed  on  it  with  a  boy's  irapetuousness,  but  he 
stopped  me  with  a  hand  on  the  sleeve. 

"Canny,  canny,"  said  he,  "let  us  get  the  very 
best  of  it.  There's  a  cloud  on  the  sun  that'll 
make  Finne  as  cold,  flat,  and  dead  as  lead ;  wait 
till  it  passes." 

We  waited  but  a  second  or  two,  and  then  the 
sun  shot  out  above  us,  and  we  stepped  on  the  hill- 
ock and  we  looked,  with  our  bonnets  in  our  hands. 

Loch  Finne  stretched  out  before  us,  a  spread 
of  twinkling  silver  waves  that  searched  into  the 
curves  of  a  myriad  bays ;  it  was  dotted  with  skiffs. 
And  the  yellow  light  of  the  early  year  gilded  the 
remotest  hills  of  Ardno  and  Ben  Ime,  and  the 
Old  Man  Mountain  lifted  his  ancient  rimy  chin, 
still  merrily  defiant,  to  the  sky.  The  parks  had 
a  greener  hue  than  any  we  had  seen  to  the  north ; 
the  town  revealed  but  its  higher  chimneys  and 
the  gable  of  the  kirk,  still  its  smoke  told  of  occu- 
pation;  the  castle  frowned  as  of  old,  and  over  all 
rose  Dunchuach. 

"O  Dunchuach!  Dunchuach!"  cried  M'lver, 
in  an  ecstasy,  spreading  out  his  arms,  and  I 
thought  of  the  old  war-worn  Greeks  who  came 
with  weary  marches  to  their  native  seas. 

"Dunchuach!  Dunchuach!"  he  said,  "far  have 
I  wandered,  and  many  a  town  I  've  seen,  and  many 
a  prospect  that  was  fine,  and  I  have  made  songs 


392  JOHN   SPLENDID 

to  maids  and  mountains,  and  foreign  castles  too, 
but  never  a  verse  to  Dunchuach.  I  do  not  know 
the  words,  but  at  my  heart  is  lilting  the  very 
tune,  and  the  spirit  of  it  is  here  at  my  breast." 

Then  the  apple  rose  in  his  throat,  and  he  turned 
him  round  about  that  I  might  not  guess  the  tear 
was  at  his  eye, 

"Tuts,"  said  I,  broken,  "'tis  at  my  own;  I 
feel  like  a  girl." 

"Just  a  tickling  at  the  pap  o'  the  hass, "  he  said 
in  English ;  and  then  we  both  laughed. 

It  was  the  afternoon  when  we  got  into  the 
town.  The  street  was  in  the  great  confusion  of 
a  fair-day,  crowded  with  burgesses  and  landward 
tenants,  men  and  women  from  all  parts  of  the 
countryside  still  on  their  way  back  from  flight, 
or  gathered  for  news  of  Inverlochy  from  the  sur- 
vivors, of  whom  we  were  the  last  to  arrive. 
Tradesmen  from  the  Lowlands  were  busy  fitting 
shops  and  houses  with  doors  and  windows,  or  fill- 
ing up  the  gaps  made  by  fire  in  the  long  lands, 
for  MacCailein's  first  thought  on  his  return  from 
Edinburgh  had  been  the  comfort  of  the  common 
people.  Seamen  clamoured  at  the  quay,  loud- 
spoken  mariners  from  the  ports  of  Greenock  and 
Dunbarton  and  their  busses  tugged  at  anchor  in 
the  upper  bay  or  sat  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  a 
friendly  congregation  under  the  breast-wall,  laden 
to  the  beams  with  merchandise  and  provender  for 
this  hungry  country.  If  Inneraora  had  been  keen- 
ing for  the  lost  of  Inverlochy,  it  had  got  over  it; 
at  least  we  found  no  public  lamentation  such  as 


JOHN   SPLENDID  393 

made  our  traverse  on  Lochow-side  so  dreary. 
Rather  was  there  something  eager  and  rapt  about 
the  comportment  of  the  people.  They  talked 
little  of  what  was  over  and  bye  with,  except  to 
curse  our  Lowland  troops,  whose  unacquaintance 
with  native  war  had  lost  us  Inverlochy.  The 
women  went  about  their  business,  red-eyed,  wan, 
silent,  for  the  most  part;  the  men  mortgaged 
the  future,  and  drowned  care  in  debauchery  in 
the  alehouses.  A  town  all  out  of  its  ordinary, 
tapsilteerie.  Walking  in  it,  I  was  beat  to  imag- 
ine clearly  what  it  had  been  like  in  its  placid  day 
of  peace.  I  could  never  think  of  it  as  ever  again 
to  be  free  from  this  most  tawdry  aspect  of  war,  a 
community  in  good  order,  with  the  day  moving 
from  dawn  to  dusk  with  douce  steps,  and  no  sharp 
agony  at  the  public  breast. 

But  we  had  no  excuse  for  lingering  long  over 
our  first  entrance  upon  its  blue  flagstone  pave- 
ments; our  first  duty  was  to  report  ourselves  in 
person  to  our  commander,  whose  return  to  Inne- 
raora  Castle  we  had  been  apprised  of  at  Cladich. 


394  JOHN    SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXX 

ARGILE'S   BEDROOxM 

This  need  for  waiting  upon  his  lordship  so  soon 
after  the  great  reverse  was  a  sour  bite  to  swallow, 
for  M'lver  as  well  as  myself.  M'lver,  had  he  his 
own  way  of  it,  would  have  met  his  chief  and 
cousin  alone;  and  he  gave  a  hint  delicately  of 
that  kind,  affecting  to  be  interested  only  in  spar- 
ing me  the  trouble  and  helping  me  home  to 
Elrigmore,  where  my  father  and  his  men  had 
returned  three  days  before.  But  I  knew  an  offi- 
cer's duty  too  well  for  that,  and  insisted  on 
accompanying  him,  certain  (with  some  mischiev- 
ous humour  in  spoiling  his  fair  speeches)  that  he 
dared  scarcely  be  so  fair-faced  and  flattering  to 
MacCailein  before  me  as  he  would  be  alone  with 
him. 

The  castle  had  the  stillness  of  the  grave. 
Every  guest  had  fled  as  quickly  as  he  could  from 
this  retreat  of  a  naked  and  ashamed  soul.  Where 
pipers  played  as  a  custom,  and  laughter  rang, 
there  was  the  melancholy  hush  of  a  monastery. 
The  servants  went  about  a-tiptoe,  speaking  in 
whispers  lest  their  master  should  be  irritated  in 
his  fever,  the  very  banner  on  the  tower  hung  limp 
about   its  pole,    hiding   the   black   galley  of   its 


JOHN   SPLENDID  395 

blazon,  now  a  lymphad  of  disgrace.  As  we  went 
over  the  bridge  a  little  dog,  his  lordship's  favour- 
ite, lying  at  the  door,  weary,  no  doubt,  of  sullen 
looks  and  silence,  came  leaping  and  barking 
about  us  at  John's  cheery  invitation,  in  a  joy,  as 
it  would  appear,  to  meet  any  one  with  a  spark  of 
life  and  friendliness. 

Argile  was  in  his  bed-chamber  and  between 
blankets,  in  the  hands  of  his  physician,  who  had 
been  bleeding  him.  He  had  a  minister  for  mind 
and  body,  for  Gordon  was  with  him  too,  and 
stayed  with  him  during  our  visit,  though  the 
chirurgeon  left  the  room  with  a  word  of  caution 
to  his  patient  not  to  excite  himself. 

"Wise  advice,  is  it  not,  gentlemen?"  said  the 
Marquis.  "As  if  one  stirred  up  his  own  pas- 
sions like  a  dame  waiting  on  a  drunken  husband. 
I  am  glad  to  see  you  back,  more  especially  as 
Master  Gordon  was  just  telling  me  of  the  sur- 
prise at  Dalness,  and  the  chance  that  you  had 
been  cut  down  there  by  the  MacDonalds,  who, 
luckily  for  him  and  Sonachan  and  the  others,  all 
followed  you  in  your  flight,  and  gave  them  a 
chance  of  an  easy  escape." 

He  shook  hands  with  us  warmly  enough,  with 
fingers  moist  and  nervous.  A  raised  look  was  in 
his  visage,  his  hair  hung  upon  a  brow  of  exceed- 
ing pallor.  I  realised  at  a  half-glance  the  com- 
motion that  was  within. 

"A  drop  of  wine.''  " 

"Thank  you,"  said  I,  "but  I  'm  after  a  glass  in 
the  town."     I   was  yet  to   learn   sorrow  for  this 


396  JOHN   SPLENDID 

unhappy  nobleman  whose  conduct  had  bittered 
me  all  the  way  from  Lorn. 

MacCailein  scrutinised  me  sharply,  and  opened 
his  lips  as  it  were  to  say  something,  but  changed 
his  mind,  and  made  a  gesture  towards  the  bottle, 
which  John  Splendid  speedily  availed  himself  of 
with  a  "Here  's  one  who  has  no  swither  about  it. 
Lord  knows  I  've  had  few  enough  of  life's  com- 
forts this  past  week!" 

Gordon  sat  with  a  Bible  in  his  hand,  abstracted, 
his  eyes  staring  on  a  window  that  looked  on  the 
branches  of  the  highest  tree  about  the  castle. 
He  had  been  reading  or  praying  with  his  master 
before  the  physician  had  come  in;  he  had  been 
doing  his  duty  (I  could  swear  by  his  stern  jaw), 
and  making  MacCailein  Mor  writhe  to  the  flame 
of  a  conscience  revived.  There  was  a  constraint 
on  the  company  for  some  minutes,  on  no  one  more 
than  Argile,  who  sat  propped  up  on  his  bolsters, 
and,  fiddling  with  long  thin  fingers  with  the 
fringes  of  his  coverlet,  looked  every  way  but  in 
the  eyes  of  M'lver  or  myself.  I  can  swear  John 
was  glad  enough  to  escape  their  glance.  He  was 
as  little  at  ease  as  his  master,  made  all  the  fuss 
he  could  with  his  bottle,  and  drank  his  wine  with 
far  too  great  a  deliberation  for  a  person  generally 
pretty  brisk  with  the  beaker. 

"It's  a  fine  day,"  said  he  at  last,  breaking 
the  silence.  "The  back  of  the  winter's  broken 
fairly."  Then  he  started  and  looked  at  me,  con- 
scious that  I  might  have  some  contempt  for  so 
frail  an  opening. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  397 

"Did  you  come  here  to  speak  about  the 
weather?"  asked  MacCailein,  with  a  sour  wea- 
ried smile. 

"No,"  said  M'lver,  ruffling  up  at  once,  "I 
came  to  ask  when  you  are  going  to  take  us  back 
the  road  we  came  ?  " 

"  To  —  to  —  overbye  ?  "  asked  MacCailein,  baulk- 
ing at  the  name. 

"Just  so;  to  Inverlochy,"  answered  M'lver. 
"  I  suppose  we  are  to  give  them  a  call  when  we 
can  muster  enough  men .''  " 

"Hadn't  we  better  consider  where  we  are 
first.''"  said  MacCailein.  Then  he  put  his  fair 
hand  through  his  ruddy  locks  and  sighed.  "  Have 
you  nothing  to  say  (and  be  done  with  it)  about  my 
—  my — 'my  part  in  the  affair .-•  His  reverence 
here  has  had  his  will  of  me  on  that  score." 

M'lver  darted  a  look  of  annoyance  at  the  min- 
ister, who  seemed  to  pay  no  heed,  but  still  to 
have  his  thoughts  far  off. 

"I  have  really  nothing  to  say.  your  lordship, 
except  that  I  'm  glad  to  see  you  spared  to  us  here 
instead  of  being  left  a  corpse  with  our  honest  old 
kinsman  Auchinbreck  {bcannacJid  leas!)  and  more 
gentry  of  your  clan  and  house  than  the  Blue 
Quarry  will  make  tombs  for  in  Kilmalieu.  If 
the  minister  has  been  preaching,  it's  his  trade; 
it 's  what  you  pay  him  for.  I  'm  no  homilist, 
thank  God,   and  no  man's  conscience." 

"No,  no;  God  knows  you  are  not,"  said  Argile, 
in  a  tone  of  pity  and  vexation.  "I  think  I  said 
before  that  you  were  the  poorest  of  consciences  to 


398  JOHN   SPLENDID 

a  man  in  a  hesitancy  between  duty  and  inclina- 
tion. .  .  .  And  all  my  guests  have  left  me,  John; 
I  'm  a  lonely  man  in  my  castle  of  Inneraora  this 
day,  except  for  the  prayers  of  a  wife  —  God  bless 
and  keep  her !  —  who  knows  and  comprehends  my 
spirit.  And  I  have  one  more  friend  here  in  this 
room " 

"  You  can  count  on  John  M'lver  to  the  yctts  of 
Hell,"  said  my  friend,  "and  I  am  the  proud  man 
that  you  should  think  it." 

"I  am  obliged  to  you  for  that,  kinsman,"  said 
his  lordship  in  Gaelic,  with  a  by  your-leave  to 
the  cleric.  "  But  do  not  give  your  witless  vanity 
a  foolish  airing  before  my  chaplain."  Then  he 
added  in  the  English,  "When  the  fairy  was  at 
my  cradle-side  and  gave  my  mother  choice  of  my 
gifts,  I  wish  she  had  chosen  rowth  of  real  friends. 
I  could  be  doing  with  more  about  me  of  the  qual- 
ity I  mention ;  better  than  horse  and  foot  would 
they  be,  more  trusty  than  the  claymores  of  my 
clan.  It  might  be  the  slogan  '  Cruachan  '  when- 
ever it  wist,  and  Archibald  of  Argile  would  be 
more  puissant  than  he  of  Homer's  story.  People 
have  envied  me  when  they  have  heard  me  called 
the  King  of  the  Highlands  —  fools  that  did  not 
know  I  was  the  poorest,  weakest  man  of  his  time, 
surrounded  by  flatterers  instead  of  friends.  Gor- 
don, Gordon,  I  am  the  victim  of  the  Highland 
liar,   that  smooth  tongued " 

"Call  it  the  Campbell  liar,"  I  cried  bitterly, 
thinking  of  my  father.  "Your  clan  has  not  the 
reputation  of  guile  for  nothing,  and  if  you  refused 


JOHN   SPLENDID  399 

straightforward  honest  outside  counsel  sometimes, 
it  was  not  for  the  want  of  its  offering." 

"I  cry  your  pardon,"  said  MacCailein,  meekly, 
"I  should  have  learned  to  discriminate  by  now. 
Blood  's  thicker  than  water,  they  say,  but  it 's  not 
so  pure  and  transparent ;  I  have  found  my  blood 
drumly  enough." 

"And  ready  enough  to  run  freely  for  you,"  said 
M'lver,  but  half  comprehending  this  perplexed 
mind.  "Your  lordship  should  be  the  last  to  echo 
any  sentiment  directed  against  the  name  and  fame 
of  Clan  Campbell." 

"  Indeed  they  gave  me  their  blood  freely  enough 
—  a  thousand  of  them  lying  yonder  in  the  north 
■ —  I  wish  they  had  been  so  lavish,  those  closest 
about  me,  with  truth  and  honour.  For  that  I 
must  depend  on  an  honest  servant  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  the  one  man  in  my  pay  with  the 
courage  to  confront  me  with  no  cloaked  speech, 
but  his  naked  thought,  though  it  should  lash  me 
like  whips.  Oh  many  a  time  my  wife,  who  is 
none  of  our  race,  warned  me  against  the  softening 
influence,  the  blight  and  rot  of  this  eternal  air  of 
flattery  that  's  round  about  Castle  Inneraora  like 
a  swamp  vapour.  She  's  in  Stirling  to-day  —  I 
ken  it  in  my  heart  that  to-night  she  '11  weep  upon 
her  pillow  because  she  '11  know  fate  has  found  the 
weak  link  in  her  goodman's  armour  again." 

John  Splendid' s  brow  came  down  upon  a  most 
perplexed  face;  this  seemed  all  beyond  him,  but 
he  knew  his  master  was  somehow  blaming  the 
world  at  large  for  his  own  error. 


400  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"Come  now,  John,"  said  his  lordship,  turning 
and  leaning  on  his  arm  and  looking  curiously  at 
his  kinsman.  "Come  now,  what  do  you  think 
of  me  here  without  a  wound  but  at  the  heart, 
with  Auchinbreck  and  all  my  gallant  fellows 
yonder? " 

"Auchinbreck  was  a  soldier  by  trade  and  a 
good  one  too,"  answered  M'lver,  at  his  usual  trick 
of  prevarication. 

"And  a  flatterer  like  yourself,  you  mean,"  said 
his  lordship.  "He  and  you  learned  the  lesson  in 
the  same  school,  I  'm  thinking.  And  as  ill  luck 
had  it,  his  ill  counsel  found  me  on  the  swither, 
as  yours  did  when  Colkitto  came  down  the  glens 
there  to  rape  and  burn.  That 's  the  Devil  for 
you;  he  's  aye  planning  to  have  the  minute  and 
the  man  together.  Come,  sir,  come,  sir,  what  do 
you  think,  what  do  you  think.-'  " 

He  rose  as  he  spoke  and  put  his  knees  below 
him,  and  leaned  across  the  bed  with  hands  upon 
the  blankets,  staring  his  kinsman  in  the  face  as  if 
he  would  pluck  the  truth  from  him  out  at  the 
very  eyes.  His  voice  rose  to  an  animal  cry  with 
an  agony  in  it ;  the  sinister  look  that  did  him 
such  injustice  breathed  across  his  visage.  His 
knuckle  and  collar-bones  shone  blae  through  the 
tight  skin. 

"What  do  I  think.?"  echoed  M'lver.  "Well, 
now " 

"On  your  honour  now,"  cried  Argilc,  clawing 
him  by  the  shoulder. 

At    that    M'lver's    countenance    changed;    he 


JOHN   SPLENDID  401 

threw  off  his  soft  complacence,  and  cruelty  and 
temper  stiffened  his  jaw. 

"I  '11  soon  give  you  that,  my  Lord  of  Argile," 
said  he.  "I  can  lie  like  a  Dutch  major  for  con- 
venience sake,  but  put  me  on  honour  and  you  '11 
get  the  truth  if  it  cost  me  my  life.  Purgatory's 
your  portion,  Argile,  for  a  Sunday's  work  that 
makes  our  name  a  mock  to-day  across  the  envious 
world.  Take  to  your  books  and  your  preachers, 
sir,  you  're  for  the  cloister  and  not  for  the  field; 
and  if  I  live  a  hundred  years,  I  '11  deny  I  went 
with  you  to  Inverlochy.  I  left  my  sword  in 
Badenoch,  but  here  's  my  dagger  "  (and  he  threw 
it  with  a  clatter  on  the  floor),  "  it 's  the  last  tool 
I  '11  handle  in  the  service  of  a  scholar.  To-mor- 
row the  old  big  wars  for  me;  Hebron's  troopers 
will  welcome  an  umquhil  comrade,  and  I  '11  find 
no  swithering  captains  among  the  cavaliers  in 
France. " 

Back  sat  my  lord  in  bed,  and  laughed  with  a 
surrender  shrill  and  distraught,  until  Master 
Gordon  and  I  calmed  him,  and  there  was  his 
cousin  still  before  him  in  a  passion,  standing  in 
the  middle  of  the  floor.  "Stop,  stop,  John,"  he 
cried;  "now  that  for  once  I've  got  the  truth 
from  you,  let  us  be  better  friends  than  ever 
before. " 

"Never  the  same  again,"  said  M'lver  firmly, 
"never  the  same  again,  for  you  ken  my  estimate 
of  you  now;  and  what  avails  my  courtesy.-'  " 

"Your  flatteries,  you  mean,"  said  Argile,  good- 
natured.      "  And,  besides,  you  speak  only  of  my 


402  JOHN   SPLENDID 

two  blunders ;  you  know  my  other  parts,  you  know 
that  by  nature  I  am  no  paltroon. " 

"That's  no  credit  to  you,  sir;  it's  the  strong 
blood  of  Diarmaid ;  there  was  no  paltroon  in  the 
race  but  what  came  in  on  the  wrong  side  of  the 
blanket.  I've  said  it  first,  and  I'll  say  it  to 
the  last,  your  spirit  is  smoored  among  the  books. 
Paper  and  ink  will  be  the  Gael's  undoing;  my 
mother  taught  me,  and  my  mother  knew :  so  long 
as  we  lived  by  our  hands  we  were  the  world's 
invincibles.  Rome  met  us  and  Rome  tried  us, 
and  her  corps  might  come  in  winter  torrents,  but 
they  never  tore  us  from  our  hills  and  keeps. 
What  Rome  may  never  do,  that  may  paper  and 
sheepskin;  you,  yourself,  MacCailein,  have  the 
name  of  plying  pen  and  ink  very  well  to  your 
own  purpose  in  the  fingers  of  old  lairds  who  have 
small  skill  of  that  contrivance." 

He  would  have  passed  on  in  this  outrageous 
strain  without  remission,  had  not  Gordon  checked 
him  with  a  determined  and  unabashed  voice.  He 
told  him  to  sit  down  in  silence  or  leave  the  room, 
and  asked  him  to  look  upon  his  master  and  see  if 
that  high  fever  was  a  condition  to  inflame  in  a  fit 
of  temper.  John  Splendid  cooled  a  little,  and 
went  to  the  window,  looking  down  with  eyes  of 
far  surmise  upon  the  pleasance  and  the  town  be- 
low, chewing  his  temper  between  his  teeth. 

"You  see,  Elrigmorc,  what  a  happy  King  of 
the  Highlands  I  am,"  said  the  Marquis  despond- 
ently. "  Fortunate  Auchinbrcck,  to  be  all  by 
with  it  after  a  moment's  agony!" 


JOHN   SPLENDID  403 

"He  died  like  a  good  soldier,  sir,"  I  said;  "he 
was  by  all  accounts  a  man  of  some  vices;  but  he 
wiped  them  out  in  his  own  blood." 

"Are  you  sure  of  that?  Is  it  not  the  old  folly 
of  the  code  of  honour,  the  mad  exaltation  of  mere 
valour  in  arms  that  makes  you  think  so?  What 
if  he  was  spilling  his  drops  on  the  wrong  side? 
He  was  against  his  king  at  least,  and  —  O  my 
wits,  my  wits,  what  am  I  saying?  ...  I  saw 
you  did  not  drink  my  wine,  Elrigmore;  am  I  so 
low  as  that  ?  " 

"There  is  no  man  so  low,  my  lord,"  said  I, 
"  but  he  may  be  yet  exalted.  We  are,  the  best 
of  us,  the  instruments  of  a  whimsical  providence  " 
("What  a  rank  doctrine,"  muttered  the  minister), 
"and  Cccsar  himself  was  sometimes  craven  before 
his  portents.  You,  my  lord,  have  the  one  conso- 
lation left,  that  all  's  not  bye  yet  with  the  cause 
you  champion,  and  you  may  yet  lead  it  to  the. 
highest  victory." 

Argile  took  a  grateful  glance  at  me.  "You 
know  what  I  am,"  he  said,  "not  a  man  of  the 
happy,  single  mood  like  our  friend  Barbreck  here, 
but  tossed  between  philosophies.  I  am  paying 
bitterly  for  my  pliability,  for  who  so  much  the 
sport  of  life  as  the  man  who  knows  right  well  the 
gait  he  should  gang,  and  prays  fervently  to  be 
permitted  to  follow  it,  but  sometimes  stumbles  in 
the  ditch?  Monday,  oh  Monday;  I  must  be  at 
Edinburgh  and  face  them  all !  'T  is  that  dauntens 
me."  His  eyes  seemed  to  swim  in  blood,  as  he 
looked  at  me,  or  through  me,  aghast  at  the  horror 


404  JOHN   SPLENDID 

of  his  situation,  and  sweat  stood  in  blobs  upon 
his  brow.  "That,"  he  went  on,  "weighs  me 
down  like  lead.  Here  about  me  my  people  know 
me,  and  may  palliate  the  mistake  of  a  day  by  the 
recollection  of  a  life-time's  honour.  I  blame 
Auchinbreck ;  I  blame  the  chieftains;  they  said 
I  must  take  to  the  galley ;  I  blame " 

"Blame  no  one,  Argile, "  said  Master  Gordon, 
standing  up  before  him,  not  a  second  too  soon, 
for  he  had  his  hand  on  the  dirk  M'lver  had  thrown 
down.  Then  he  turned  to  us  with  ejecting  arms. 
"Out  you  go!"  he  cried  sternly;  "out  you  go  ! 
what  delight  have  you  in  seeing  a  nobleman  on 
the  rack.-*  " 

As  the  door  closed  behind  us  we  could  hear 
Argile  sob. 

Seventeen  years  later,  if  I  may  quit  the  thread 
of  my  history  and  take  in  a  piece  that  more 
properly  belongs  to  the  later  adventures  of  John 
Splendid,  I  saw  my  lord  die  by  the  maiden. 
Being  then  in  his  tail,  I  dined  with  him  and  his 
friends  the  day  before  he  died,  and  he  spoke  with 
exceeding  cheerfulness  of  that  hour  M'lver  and  I 
found  him  in  bed  in  Inneraora.  "You  saw  me  at 
my  worst,"  said  he,  "on  two  occasions;  bide  till 
to-morrow  and  you  '11  see  me  at  my  best.  I  never 
unmasked  to  mortal  man  till  that  day  Gordon  put 
you  out  of  my  room."  I  stayed  and  saw  him  die; 
I  saw  his  head  up  and  his  chin  in  the  air  as  be- 
hoved his  quality,  that  day  he  went  through  that 
noisy,  crowded,  causied  Edinburgh  —  Edinburgh 
of  the  doleful  memories,  Edinburgh  whose  ports 


JOHN   SPLENDID  405 

I  never  enter  till  this  day  but  I  feel  a  tickling  at 
the  nape  of  my  neck,  as  where  a  wooden  collar 
should  lie  before  the  shear  fall. 

"A  cool  enough  reception  this,"  said  M'lvcr,  as 
we  left  the  gate.  "It  was  different  last  year, 
when  we  went  up  together  on  your  return  from 
Low  Germanic.  Then  MacCailein  was  in  the 
need  of  soldiers,  now  he  's  in  the  need  of  priests, 
who  gloze  over  his  weakness  with  their  prayers." 

"You  are  hardly  fair  either  to  the  one  or  the 
other,"  I  said.  "Argile,  whom  I  went  in  to  meet 
to-day  with  a  poor  regard  for  him,  turns  out  a 
better  man  than  I  gave  him  credit  for  being;  he 
has  at  least  the  grace  to  grieve  about  a  great  error 
of  judgment,  or  weakness  of  the  spirit,  whichever 
it  may  be.  And  as  for  Master  Gordon,  I  '11  take 
off  my  hat  to  him.  Yon  's  no  type  of  the  sour, 
dour,  antiprelatics;  he  comes  closer  on  the  per- 
fect man  and  soldier  than  any  man  I  ever  met." 

M'lver  looked  at  me  with  a  sign  of  injured 
vanity. 

"You're  not  very  fastidious  in  your  choice  of 
comparisons,"  said  he.  "As  for  myself,  I  can- 
not see  much  more  in  Gordon  than  what  he  is 
paid  for  —  a  habit  of  even  temper,  more  truthful- 
ness than  I  have  myself,  and  that  's  a  dubious 
virtue,  for  see  the  impoliteness  that  's  always  in 
its  train!  Add  to  that  a  lack  of  any  clannish 
regard  for  MacCailein  Mor,  whom  he  treats  just 
like  a  common  merchant,  and  that 's  all.  Just  a 
plain,  stout,  fozy,  sappy  burrow-man,  keeping  a 
gospel   shop,   with   scarcel}'  so  much  of  a  man's 


4o6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

parts  as  will  let  him  fend  a  blow  in  the  face.  I 
could  march  four  miles  for  his  one,  and  learn  him 
the  A  B  rt<^  of  every  manly  art. " 

"I  like  you  fine,  man,"  I  cried;  "I  would 
sooner  go  tramping  the  glens  with  you  any  day 
than  Master  Gordon;  but  that's  a  weakness  of 
the  imperfect  and  carnal  man,  that  cares  not  to 
have  a  conscience  at  his  coat-tail  every  hour  of 
the  day:  you  have  your  own  parts  and  he  his,  and 
his  parts  are  those  that  are  not  very  common  on 
our  side  of  the  country  —  more  's  the  pity." 

M'lver  was  too  busy  for  a  time  upon  the  sudden 
rupture  with  Argile  to  pay  very  much  heed  to  my 
defence  of  Master  Gordon.  The  quarrel  —  to  call 
that  a  quarrel  in  which  one  man  had  all  the  bad 
temper  and  the  other  nothing  but  self-reproach  — 
had  soured  him  of  a  sudden  as  thunder  turns  the 
morning's  cream  to  curd  before  noon.  And  his 
whole  demeanour  revealed  a  totally  new  man.  In 
his  ordinary  John  was  very  pernicketty  about  his 
clothing,  always  with  the  most  shining  of  buckles 
and  buttons,  always  trim  in  plaiding,  snod  and 
spruce  about  his  hair  and  his  hosen,  a  real  dandy 
who  never  overdid  the  part,  but  just  contrived  to 
be  pleasant  to  the  eye  of  women,  who,  in  my 
observation,  have,  the  most  sensible  of  them,  as 
great  a  contempt  for  the  mere  fop  as  they  have 
for  the  sloven.  It  took,  indeed,  trimness  of 
apparel  to  make  up  for  the  plainness  of  his  face. 
Not  that  he  was  ugly  or  harsh-favoured ;  he  was 
too  genial  for  either;  he  was  simply  well-favoured 
enough  to  pass  in  a  fair,  as  the  saying  goes,  which 


JOHN   SPLENDID  407 

is  a  midway  between  Apollo  and  plain  Donald. 
But  what  with  a  jacket  and  vest  all  creased  for 
the  most  apparent  reasons,  a  plaid  frayed  to  rib- 
bons in  dashing  through  the  wood  of  Dalness, 
brogues  burst  at  the  toes  and  a  bonnet  soaked  all 
out  of  semblance  to  itself  by  rains,  he  appeared 
more  common.  The  black  temper  of  him  trans- 
formed his  face  too:  it  lost  the  geniality  that  was 
its  main  charm,  and  out  of  his  eyes  flamed  a  most 
wicked,  cunning,  cruel  fellow. 

He  went  down  the  way  from  the  castle  brig  to 
the  arches  cursing  with  great  eloquence.  A  sol- 
dier picks  up  many  tricks  of  blasphemy  in  a  career 
about  the  world  with  foreign  legions,  and  John 
had  the  reddings  of  three  or  four  languages  at  his 
command,  so  that  he  had  no  need  to  repeat  him- 
self much  in  his  choice  of  terms  about  his  chief. 
To  do  him  justice,  he  had  plenty  of  condemna- 
tion for  himself  too. 

"Well,"  said  I,  "you  were  inclined  to  be  calm 
enough  with  MacCailein  when  first  we  entered 
his  room.  I  suppose  all  this  uproar  is  over  his 
charge  of  flattery,  not  against  yourself  alone  but 
against  all  the  people  about." 

"That's  just  the  thing,"  he  cried,  turning 
round  and  throwing  his  arms  furiously  about. 
"Could  he  not  have  charged  the  clan  generally, 
and  let  who  would  put  the  cap  on.?  If  yon  's  the 
policy  of  Courts,  heaven  help  princes!" 

"And  yet  you  were  very  smug  when  you 
entered,"   I  protested. 

"Was  I  that.''"  he  retorted.     "That's  easy  to 


408  JOHN   SPLENDID 

account  for.  Did  you  ever  feel  like  arguing  with 
a  gentleman  when  you  had  on  your  second-best 
clothes  and  no  ruffle?  The  man  was  in  his  bed, 
and  his  position  as  he  cocked  up  there  on  his 
knees  was  not  the  most  dignified  I  have  seen; 
but  even  then  he  had  the  best  of  it,  for  I  felt  like 
a  beggar  before  him  in  my  shabby  duds.  Oh,  he 
had  the  best  of  us  all  there.  You  saw  Gordon 
had  the  sense  to  put  on  a  new  surtout  and  clean 
linen  and  a  freshly  dressed  peruke  before  he  saw 
him;  I  think  he  would  scarcely  have  been  so  bold 
before  Argile  if  he  had  his  brcck-bands  a  finger- 
length  below  his  belt,  and  his  wig  on  the  nape  of 
his  neck  as  we  saw  him  in  Glencoc. " 

"Anyhow,"  said  I,  "you  have  cut  the  connec- 
tion ;  are  you  really  going  abroad  .■"  " 

He  paused  a  second  in  thought,  smiled  a  little, 
and  then  laughed  as  if  he  had  seen  something 
humorous. 

"Man,"  said  he,  "didn't  I  do  the  dirk  trick 
with  a  fine  touch  of  nobility.'*  Maybe  you  thought 
it  was  done  on  the  impulse  and  without  any  cal- 
culation. The  truth  was,  I  played  the  whole 
thing  over  in  my  mind  while  he  was  in  the  pre- 
liminaries of  his  discourse.  I  saw  he  was  work- 
ing up  to  an  attack,  and  I  knew  I  could  surprise 
him.  But  I  must  confess  I  said  more  than  I  in- 
tended. When  I  spoke  of  the  big  wars  and  He- 
bron's troopers  —  well,  Argile  's  a  very  nice  shire 
to  be  living  in." 

"What,  was  it  all  play-acting,  then.?" 

He  looked  at  me  and  shrugged  his  shoulders. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  409 

"You  must  be  a  singularly  simple  man,  Elrig- 
more,"  he  said,  "to  ask  that  of  any  one.  Are  we 
not  play-acting  half  our  lives  once  we  get  a  little 
beyond  the  stage  of  the  ploughman  and  the  herd  ? 
Half  our  tears  and  half  our  laughter  and  the  great 
bulk  of  our  virtues  are  like  your  way  of  cocking 
your  bonnet  over  your  right  ear;  it  does  not  come 
by  nature,  and  it  is  done  to  pleasure  the  world  in 
general.  Play-acting!  I'll  tell  you  this,  Colin, 
I  could  scarcely  say  myself  when  a  passion  of 
mine  is  real  or  fancied  now.  But  I  can  tell  you 
this  too;  if  I  began  in  play  to  revile  the  Marquis, 
I  ended  in  earnest.  I  'm  afraid  it  's  all  bye  with 
me  yonder.  No  more  mine-managing  for  me;  I 
struck  too  close  on  the  marrow  for  him  to  for- 
get it." 

"He  has  forgotten  and  forgiven  it  already,"  I 
cried.  "At  least  let  us  hope  he  has  not  forgot- 
ten it  (for  you  said  no  more  than  was  perhaps 
deserved),  but  at  least  it  's  forgiven.  If  you 
said  to-morrow  that  you  were  sorry  for  your 
temper " 

"  Said  ten  thousand  fiends  in  Hell !  "  cried 
M'lver.  "I  may  be  vexed  I  angered  the  man; 
but  I  '11  never  let  him  know  it  by  my  words,  if 
he  cannot  make  it  out  from  my  acts." 


4IO  JOHN    SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

MISTRESS   BETTY 

I  DRESSED  myself  up  in  the  morning  with  scrupu- 
lous care,  put  my  hair  in  a  queue,  shaved  cheek 
and  chin  and  put  at  my  shoulder  the  old  heirloom 
brooch  of  the  house,  which,  with  some  other 
property,  the  invaders  had  not  found  below  the 
bruacJi  where  we  had  hid  it  on  the  day  we  had 
left  Elrigmore  to  their  mercy.  I  was  all  in  a 
tremor  of  expectation,  hot  and  cold  by  turns  in 
hope  and  apprehension,  but  always  with  a  singu- 
lar uplifting  at  the  heart,  because  for  good  or  ill 
I  was  sure  to  meet  in  the  next  hour  or  two  the 
one  person  whose  presence  in  Inneraora  made  it 
the  finest  town  in  the  world.  Some  men  tell  me 
they  have  felt  the  experience  more  than  once ; 
light  o'  loves  they,  errant  gallants,  I'll  swear  (my 
dear)  the  tingle  of  it  came  to  me  but  once  at  the 
thought  of  meeting  one  woman.  Had  she  been 
absent  from  Inneraora  that  morning  I  would  have 
avoided  it  like  a  leper-house  because  of  its  gloomy 
memorials;  but  the  very  reek  of  its  repairing 
tenements  as  I  saw  them  from  the  upper  windows 
of  my  home  floating  in  a  haze  against  the  blue 
over  the  shoulder  of  Dun  Torvil  seemed  to  call 


JOHN   SPLENDID  411 

me  on.  I  went  about  the  empty  chambers  carol- 
ling like  the  bird.  Aumrie  and  clothes-press  were 
burst  and  vacant,  the  rooms  in  all  details  were 
bereft  and  cheerless  because  of  the  plenishing 
stolen,  and  my  father  sat  among  his  losses  and 
mourned,   but  I  made  light  of  our  spoiling. 

As  if  to  heighten  the  rapture  of  my  mood,  the 
day  was  full  of  sunshine,  and  though  the  woods 
crowding  the  upper  glen  were  leafless  and  slum- 
bering, they  were  touched  to  something  like 
autumn's  gold.  Some  people  love  the  country 
but  in  the  time  of  leafage;  I  find  it  laden  with 
delights  in  every  season  of  the  year,  and  the  end 
of  winter  as  cheery  a  period  as  any,  for  I  know 
that  the  buds  are  pressing  at  the  bark,  and  that 
the  boughs  in  rumours  of  wind  stretch  out  like 
the  arms  of  the  sleeper  who  will  soon  be  full 
awake. 

Down  I  went  stepping  to  a  merry  lilt,  banish- 
ing every  fear  from  my  thoughts,  and  the  first 
call  I  made  was  on  the  Provost.  He  was  over  in 
Askaig's  with  his  wife  and  family  pending  the 
repair  of  his  own  house,  and  Askaig  was  off  to 
his  estate.  Master  Brown  sat  on  the  balusters  of 
the  outer  stair,  dangling  his  squat  legs  and  study- 
ing through  horn  specs  the  tale  of  thig  and  theft 
which  the  town  officer  had  made  up  a  report  on. 
As  I  put  my  foot  on  the  bottom  step  he  looked 
up,  and  his  welcome  was  most  friendly. 

"Colin!  Colin!"  he  cried,  hastening  down  to 
shake  me  by  the  hand,  "  come  your  ways  in.  I 
heard  you  got  home  yesterday,  and  I  was  sure  you 


412  JOHN   SPLENDID 

would  give  us  a  call  in  the  by-going  to-day.  And 
you  're  little  the  waur  of  your  jaunt — hale  and 
hearty.  We  ken  all  about  your  prisoning;  M'lver 
was  in  last  night  and  kept  the  crack  going  till 
morning  —  a  most  humorous  devil." 

He  pinched  rapee  as  he  spoke  in  rapid  doses 
from  a  snuff-box,  and  spread  the  brown  powder  in 
extravagant  carelessness  over  his  vest.  He  might 
affect  what  light-heartedness  he  could;  I  saw  that 
the  past  fortnight  had  made  a  difference  for  the 
worse  on  him.  The  pouches  below  the  eyes  had 
got  heavier  and  darker,  the  lines  had  deepened  on 
his  brow,  the  ruddy  polish  had  gone  off  his  cheek, 
and  it  was  dull  and  spotted;  by  ten  o'clock  at 
night — when  he  used  to  be  very  jovial  over  a 
glass  —  I  could  tell  he  would  be  haggard  and 
yawning.  At  his  years  men  begin  to  age  in  a 
few  hours;  a  sudden  wrench  to  the  affections,  or 
shock  to  a  long-disciplined  order  of  things  in 
their  lives,  will  send  them  staggering  down  off 
the  braehead  whereon  they  have  been  perched 
with  a  good  balance  so  long  that  they  themselves 
have  forgot  the  natural  course  of  human  man  is  to 
be  progressing  somewhere. 

"Ah,  lad,  lad!  haven't  we  the  times.''"  he 
said,  as  he  led  me  within  to  the  parlour.  "Inne- 
raora  in  the  stour  in  her  reputation  as  well  as  in 
her  tenements.  I  wish  the  one  could  be  amended 
as  readily  as  the  other;  but  we  mustn't  be  saying 
a  word  against  princes,  ye  ken,"  he  went  on  in 
the  discreet  whisper  of  the  conspirator.  "You 
were  up  and  saw  him   last  night,   I  'm  hearing. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  413 

To-day  they  tell  me  he  's  himself  again,  and  com- 
ing down  to  a  session  meeting  at  noon.  I  must 
put  myself  in  his  way  to  say  a  friendly  word  or 
two.  Ah  !  you  're  laughing  at  us.  I  understand, 
man,  I  understand.  You  travellers  need  not 
practise  the  art  of  civility;  but  we're  too  close 
on  the  castle  here  to  be  out  of  favour  with  Mac- 
Cailein  Mor.  Draw  in  your  chair,  and  —  Mary, 
Mary,  goodwife !  bring  in  the  bottle  with  you  and 
see  young  Elrigmore. " 

In  came  the  goodwife  with  even  greater  signs 
of  trouble  than  her  husband,  but  all  in  a  flurry  of 
good-humoured  welcome.  They  sat,  the  pair  of 
them,  before  me  in  a  little  room  poorly  lit  by  a 
narrow  window  but  half-glazed,  because  a  lower 
portion  of  it  had  been  destroyed  in  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  Irish,  and  had  to  be  timbered  up  to 
keep  the  wind  outside.  A  douce  pathetic  pair; 
I  let  my  thoughts  stray  a  little  even  from  their 
daughter  as  I  looked  on  them,  and  pondered  on 
the  tragedy  of  age  that  is  almost  as  cruel  as  war, 
but  for  the  love  that  set  Provost  Brown  with  his 
chair  haffit  close  against  his  wife's,  so  that  less 
noticeably  he  might  take  her  hand  in  his  below 
the  table  and  renew  the  glow  that  first  they 
learned,  no  doubt,  when  lad  and  lass  awandering 
in  summer  days,  oh  long  ago,  in  Eas-a-chosain 
glen. 

They  plied  me  with  a  hundred  questions,  of  my 
adventures,  and  of  my  father,  and  of  affairs  up  in 
Shira  Glen.  I  sat  answering  very  often  at  haz- 
ard, with  my  mind  fixed  on  the  one  question  I 


414  JOHN   SPLENDID 

had  to  ask,  which  was  a  simple  one  as  to  the 
whereabouts  and  condition  of  their  daughter.  But 
I  leave  to  any  lad  of  a  shrinking  and  sensitive 
nature  if  this  was  not  a  task  of  exceeding  diffi- 
culty. For  you  must  remember  that  here  were 
two  very  sharp-eyed  parents,  one  of  them  with  a 
gift  of  irony  discomposing  to  a  lover,  and  the 
other  or  both  perhaps,  with  no  reason,  so  far  as  I 
knew,  to  think  I  had  any  special  feeling  for  the 
girl.  But  I  knew  as  well  as  if  I  had  gone  over 
the  thing  a  score  of  times  before,  how  my  manner 
of  putting  that  simple  question  would  reveal  me 
at  a  flash  to  the  irony  of  the  father  and  the  won- 
der of  the  mother.  And  in  any  case  they  gave 
me  not  the  smallest  chance  of  putting  it.  As 
they  plied  me  with  affairs  a  thousand  miles  be- 
yond the  limits  of  my  immediate  interest,  and  I 
answered  them  with  a  brevity  almost  discourte- 
ous, I  was  practising  two  or  three  phrases  in  my 
mind. 

"And  how  is  your  daughter,  sir.-*"  might  seem 
simple  enough,  but  it  would  be  too  cold  for  an 
inquirer  to  whom  hitherto  she  had  always  been 
Betty,  while  to  ask  for  Betty  outright  would — a 
startling  new  spring  of  delicacy  in  my  nature 
told  me  —  be  to  use  a  friendly  warmth  only  the 
most  cordial  relations  with  the  girl  would  war- 
rant. No  matter  how  I  mooted  the  lady,  I  knew 
something  in  my  voice  and  the  very  flush  in  my 
face  would  reveal  my  secret.  My  position  grew 
more  pitiful  every  moment,  for  to  the  charge  of 
cowardice  I  levelled  first  at  myself  for  my  back- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  415 

wardness,  there  was  the  charge  of  discourtesy. 
What  could  they  think  of  my  breeding  that  I  had 
not  mentioned  their  daughter?  What  could  I 
think  from  their  silence  regarding  her  but  that 
they  were  vexed  at  my  indifference  to  her,  and 
with  the  usual  Highland  pride  were  determined 
not  even  to  mention  her  name  till  she  was  asked 
for.  Upon  my  word,  I  was  in  a  trouble  more  dis- 
tressing than  when  I  sat  in  the  mist  in  the  Moor 
of  Rannoch  and  confessed  myself  lost !  I  thought 
for  a  little,  in  a  momentary  wave  of  courage,  of 
leading  the  conversation  in  her  direction  by  hark- 
ing back  to  the  day  when  the  town  was  aban- 
doned, and  she  took  flight  with  the  child  into  the 
woods.  Still  the  Provost,  now  doing  all  the  talk- 
ing, while  his  wife  knit  hose,  would  ever  turn  a 
hundred  by-ways  from  the  main  road  I  sought  to 
lead  him  on. 

By-and-by,  when  the  crack  had  drifted  hope- 
lessly away  from  all  connection  with  Mistress 
Betty,  there  was  a  woman's  step  on  the  stair. 
My  face  became  as  hot  as  fire  at  the  sound,  and 
I  leaned  eagerly  forward  in  my  chair  before  I 
thought  of  the  transparency  of  the  movement. 

The  Provost's  eyes  closed  to  little  slits  in  his 
face;  the  corner  of  his  mouth  curled  in  amuse- 
ment. 

"Here's  Peggy  back  from  Bailie  Campbell's," 
he  said  to  his  wife,  and  I  was  convinced  he  did 
so  to  let  me  know  the  new-comer,  who  was  now 
moving  about  in  the  kitchen  across  the  lobby, 
was  not  the  one  I  had  expected.      My  disappoint- 


4t6  JOHN   SPLENDID 

ment  must  have  shown  in  my  face;  I  felt  I  was 
wasting  moments  the  most  precious,  though  it 
was  something  to  be  under  the  same  roof  as  my 
lady's  relatives,  under  the  same  roof  as  she  had 
slept  below  last  night,  and  to  see  some  of  her 
actual  self  almost,  in  the  smiles  and  eyes  and 
turns  of  the  voice  of  her  mother.  I  stood  up  to 
go,  slyly  casting  an  eye  about  the  chamber  for 
the  poor  comfort  of  seeing  so  little  as  a  ribbon  or 
a  shoe  that  was  hers,  but  even  that  was  denied 
me.  The  Provost,  who,  I  '11  swear  now,  knew  my 
trouble  from  the  outset,  though  his  wife  was  blind 
to  it,  felt  at  last  constrained  to  relieve  it. 

"And  you  must  be  going,"  he  said;  "I  wish 
you  could  have  waited  to  see  Betty,  who  's  on  a 
visit  to  Carlunnan  and  should  be  home  by  now. " 

As  he  said  it,  he  was  tapping  his  snuff-mull 
and  looking  at  me  pawkily  out  of  the  corners  of 
his  eyes,  that  hovered  between  me  and  his  wife, 
who  stood  with  the  wool  in  her  hand,  beaming 
mildly  up  in  my  face.  I  half  turned  on  my  heel 
and  set  a  restless  gaze  on  the  corner  of  the  room. 
For  many  considerations  were  in  his  simple 
words.  That  he  should  say  them  at  all  relieved 
the  tension  of  my  wonder;  that  he  should  say 
them  in  the  way  he  did,  was,  in  a  manner,  a 
manifestation  that  he  guessed  the  real  state  of  my 
feelings  to  the  lady  whose  very  name  I  had  not 
dared  to  mention  to  him,  and  that  he  was  ready 
to  favour  any  suit  I  pressed.  I  was  even  inclined 
to  push  my  reading  of  his  remark  further,  and  say 
to  myself  that  if  he  had  not  known  the  lady  her- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  417 

self  favoured  me,  he  would  never  have  fanned  my 
hope  by  even  so  little  as  an  indifferent  sentence. 

"And  how  is  she  —  how  is  Betty?"  I  asked, 
lamely. 

He  laughed  with  a  pleasing  slyness,  and  gave 
me  a  dunt  with  his  elbow  on  the  side,  a  bit  of 
the  faun,  a  bit  of  the  father,  a  bit  of  my  father's 
friend. 

"You're  too  blate,  Colin,"  he  said,  and  then 
he  put  his  arm  through  his  wife's  and  gave  her  a 
squeeze  to  take  her  into  his  joke.  I  would  have 
laughed  at  the  humour  of  it  but  for  the  surprise 
in  the  good  woman's  face.  It  fair  startled  me, 
and  yet  it  was  no  more  than  the  look  of  a  woman 
who  learns  that  her  man  and  she  have  been  close 
company  with  a  secret  for  months,  and  she  had 
never  made  its  acquaintance.  There  was  perhaps 
a  little  more,  a  hesitancy  in  the  utterance,  a  flush, 
a  tone  that  seemed  to  show  the  subject  was  one  to 
be  passed  bye  as  fast  as  possible. 

She  smiled  feebly  a  little,  picked  up  a  row  of 
dropped  stitches,  and  "Oh,  Betty,"  said  she, 
"Betty — is  —  is  —  she'll  be  back  in  a  little. 
Will  you  not  wait .'' " 

"No,  I  must  be  going,"  I  said;  "I  may  have 
the  happiness  of  meeting  her  before  I  go  up  the 
glen  in  the  afternoon." 

They  pressed  me  both  to  stay,  but  I  seemed,  in 
my  mind,  to  have  a  new  demand  upon  me  for  an 
immediate  and  private  meeting  with  the  girl ;  she 
must  be  seen  alone  and  not  in  presence  of  the  old 
couple,  who  would  give  my  natural  shyness  in  her 

27 


4i8  JOHN   SPLENDID 

company  far  more  gawkincss  than  it  might  have 
if  I  met  her  alone. 

I  went  out  and  went  down  the  stair,  and  along 
the  front  of  the  land,  my  being  in  a  tumult,  yet 
with  my  observation  keen  to  everything,  no  mat- 
ter how  trivial,  that  happened  around  me.  The 
sea-gulls,  that  make  the  town  the  playground  of 
their  stormy  holidays,  swept  and  curved  among 
the  pigeons  in  the  gutter  and  quarrelled  over  the 
spoils;  tossed  in  the  air  wind-blown,  then  dropped 
with  feet  outstretched  upon  the  black  joists  and 
window-sills.  Fowls  of  the  midden,  new  brought 
from  other  parts  to  make  up  the  place  of  those 
that  had  gone  to  the  kail-pots  of  Antrim  and 
Athole,  stalked  about  with  heads  high,  foreign 
to  this  causied  and  gravelled  country,  clucking 
eagerly  for  meat.  I  made  my  way  amid  the  bird 
of  the  sea  and  the  bird  of  the  wood  and  common 
bird  of  the  yard  with  a  divided  mind,  seeing  them 
with  the  eye  for  future  recollection,  but  seeing 
them  not.  Peats  were  at  every  close-mouth,  at 
every  door  almost  that  was  half-habitable,  and 
fuel  cut  from  the  wood,  and  all  about  the  thor- 
oughfare was  embarrassed. 

I  had  a  different  decision  at  every  step,  now  to 
seek  the  girl,  now  to  go  home,  now  finding  the 
most  heartening  hints  in  the  agitation  of  the  par- 
ents, anon  troubled  exceedingly  with  the  reflec- 
tion that  there  was  something  of  an  unfavourable 
nature  in  the  demeanour  of  her  mother,  however 
much  the  father's  badinage  might  sooth  my  vanity. 

I  had  made  up  my  mind  for  the  twentieth  time 


JOHN   SPLENDID  419 

to  go  the  length  of  Carlunnan  and  face  her  plump 
and  plain,  when  behold  she  came  suddenly  round 
the  corner  at  the  Maltland  where  the  surviving 
Lowland  troops  were  gathered!  M'lver  was  with 
her,  and  my  resolution  shrivelled  and  shook  within 
me  like  an  old  nut  kernel.  I  would  have  turned 
but  for  the  stupidity  and  ill-breeding  such  a  move- 
ment would  evidence,  yet  as  I  held  on  my  way  at 
a  slower  pace  and  the  pair  apjoroached,  I  felt  every 
limb  an  encumbrance,  I  felt  the  country  lout 
throbbing  in  every  vein. 

Betty  almost  ran  to  meet  me  as  we  came  closer 
together,  with  an  agreeableness  that  might  have 
pleased  me  more  had  I  not  the  certainty  that  she 
would  have  been  as  warm  to  either  of  the  two  men 
who  had  rescued  her  from  her  hiding  in  the  wood 
of  Strongara,  and  had  just  come  back  from  her 
country's  battles  with  however  small  credit  to 
themselves  in  the  result.  She  was  in  a  very 
happy  mood,  for,  like  all  women,  she  could  read- 
ily forget  the  large  and  general  vexation  of  a 
reverse  to  her  people  in  war  if  the  immediate 
prospect  was  not  unpleasant  and  things  around 
were  showing  improvement.  Her  eyes  shone  and 
sparkled,  the  ordinary  sedate  flow  of  her  words 
was  varied  by  little  outbursts  of  gaiety.  She  had 
been  visiting  the  child  at  Carlunnan,  where  it 
had  been  adopted  by  her  kinswoman,  who  made  a 
better  guardian  than  it's  grandmother,  who  died 
on  her  way.  to  Dunbarton. 

"What  sets  you  on  this  road,"  she  asked 
blandly. 


420  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"Oh,  you  have  often  seen  me  on  this  road  be- 
fore," I  said,  boldly  and  with  meaning.  Ere  I 
went  wandering  we  had  heard  the  rivers  sing 
many  a  time,  and  sat  upon  its  banks  and  little 
thought  life  and  time  were  passing  as  quickly  as 
the  leaf  or  bubble  on  the  surface.  She  flushed 
ever  so  little  at  the  remembrance,  and  threw  a 
stray  curl  back  from  her  temples  with  an  impa- 
tient toss  of  her  fingers. 

"And  so  much  of  the  dandy  too!"  put  in 
M'lver,  himself  perjink  enough  about  his  apparel. 
"I  '11  wager  there  's  a  girl  in  the  business."  He 
laughed  low,  looked  from  one  to  the  other  of  us, 
yet  his  meaning  escaped,  or  seemed  to  escape, 
the  lady. 

"  Elrigmore  is  none  of  the  kind,"  she  said,  as 
if  to  protect  a  child.  "  He  has  too  many  serious 
affairs  of  life  in  hand  to  be  in  the  humour  for 
gallivanting." 

This  extraordinary  reading  of  my  character  by 
the  one  woman  who  ought  to  have  known  it  bet- 
ter, if  only  by  an  instinct,  threw  me  into  a  blend 
of  confusion  and  chagrin.  I  had  no  answer  for 
her.  I  regretted  now  that  my  evil  star  had  sent 
mc  up  Glenaora,  or  that  having  met  her  with 
M'lver,  whose  presence  increased  my  diffidence, 
I  had  not  pretended  some  errand  or  business  up 
among  the  farm-lands  in  the  Salachry  hills,  where 
distant  relatives  of  our  house  were  often  found. 
But  now  I  was  on  one  side  of  the  lady  and  M'lver 
on  the  other,  on  our  way  towards  the  burgh,  and 
the  convoy  must   be  concluded,   even   if  I  were 


JOHN   SPLENDID  421 

dumb  all  the  way.  Dumb,  indeed,  I  was  inclined 
to  be.  M'lver  laughed  uproariously  at  madame's 
notion  that  I  was  too  seriously  engaged  with  life 
for  the  recreation  of  love-making;  it  was  bound 
to  please  him,  coming,  as  it  did,  so  close  on  his 
own  estimate  of  me  as  the  Sobersides  he  chris- 
tened me  at  almost  our  first  acquaintance.  But 
he  had  a  generous  enough  notion  to  give  me  the 
chance  of  being  alone  with  the  girl  he  knew  very 
well  my  feelings  for. 

"I  've  been  up  just  now  at  the  camp,"  he  said, 
"anent  the  purchase  of  a  troop-horse,  and  I  had 
not  concluded  my  bargain  when  Mistress  Brown 
passed.  I  'm  your  true  caballcro  in  one  respect, 
that  I  must  be  offering  every  handsome  passenger 
an  escort;  but  this  time  it's  an  office  for  Elrig- 
more,  who  can  undertake  your  company  down 
the  way  bravely  enough,  I  '11  swear,  for  all  his 
blateness." 

Betty  halted,  as  did  the  other  two  of  us,  and 
bantered  my  comrade. 

"  I  ask  your  pardon  a  thousand  times,  Barbreck," 
she  said ;  "  I  thought  you  were  hurrying  on  your 
way  down  behind  me,  and  came  upon  me  before 
you  saw  who  I  was." 

"That  was  the  story,"  said  he,  coolly;  "I'm 
too  old  a  hand  at  the  business  to  be  set  back  on 
the  road  I  came  by  a  lady  who  has  no  relisii  for 
my  company." 

"  I  would  not  take  you  away  from  your  market- 
ing for  the  world,"  she  proceeded.  "Perhaps 
Elrigmore  may  be  inclined  to  go  up  to  the  camp 


422  JOHN   SPLENDID 

too;  he  may  help  you  to  the  pick  of  your  horse  — 
and  we  '11  believe  you  the  soldier  of  fortune  again 
when  we  see  you  one." 

She,  at  least,  had  no  belief  that  the  mine-man- 
ager was  to  be  a  mercenary  again.  She  tapped 
with  a  tiny  toe  on  the  pebbles,  affecting  a  choler 
the  twinkle  in  her  eyes  did  not  homologate. 

It  was  enough  for  M'lver,  who  gave  a  "  Pshaw," 
and  concluded  he  might  as  well,  as  he  said,  "  be 
in  good  company  so  long  as  he  had  the  chance," 
and  down  the  way  again  we  went.  Somehow  the 
check  had  put  him  on  his  mettle.  He  seemed  to 
lose  at  once  all  regard  for  my  interests  in  this.  I 
became,  in  truth,  more  frequently  than  was  palat- 
able, the  butt  of  his  little  pleasantries;  my  mys- 
terious saunter  up  that  glen,  my  sobriety  of 
demeanour,  my  now  silence  —  all  those  things, 
whose  meaning  he  knew  very  well,  were  made 
the  text  for  his  amusement  for  the  lady.  As  for 
me,  I  met  it  all  weakly,  striving  to  meet  his  wit 
with  careless  smiles. 

For  the  first  time,  I  was  seized  with  a  jealousy 
of  him.  Here  was  I,  your  arrant  rustic;  he  was 
as  composed  as  could  be,  overflowing  with  happy 
thoughts,  laughable  incident," and  ever  ready  with 
the  compliment  or  the  retort  women  love  to  hear 
from  a  smart  fellow  of  even  indifferent  character. 
He  had  the  policy  to  conceal  the  vanity  that  was 
for  ordinary  his  most  transparent  feature,  and  his 
trick  was  to  admire  the  valour  and  the  humour  of 
others.  Our  wanderings  in  Lorn  and  Lochaber, 
our  adventures  with  the  MacDonalds,  all  the  story 


JOHN   SPLENDID  423 

of  the  expedition,  he  danced  through,  as  it  were, 
on  the  tip-toe  of  light  phrase,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
strong  man's  scheme  of  recreation,  scarcely  once 
appealing  to  me.  With  a  flushed  cheek  and  parted 
lips  the  lady  hung  upon  his  words,  arched  her 
dark  eyebrows  in  fear,  or  bubbled  into  the  mer- 
riest laughter  as  the  occasion  demanded.  Worst 
of  all,  she  seemed  to  share  his  amusement  at  my 
silence,  and  then  I  could  have  wished  rather  than 
a  bag  of  gold  I  had  the  Mull  witch's  invisible 
coat,  or  that  the  earth  would  swallow  me  up. 
The  very  country-people  passing  on  the  way  were 
art  and  part  in  the  conspiracy  of  circumstances  to 
make  me  unhappy.  Their  salutes  were  rarely  for 
Elrigmore,  but  for  the  lady  and  John  Splendid, 
whose  bold  quarrel  with  MacCailein  Mor  was  now 
the  rumour  of  two  parishes,  and  gave  him  a  wide 
name  for  unflinching  bravery  of  a  kind  he  had 
been  generally  acknowledged  as  sadly  wanting  in 
before.  And  Mistress  Betty  could  not  but  see 
that  high  or  low,  I  was  second  to  this  fellow 
going  off  —  or  at  least  with  the  rumour  of  it  —  to 
Hebron's  cavaliers  in  France  before  the  week-end. 
M'lver  was  just,  perhaps,  carrying  his  humour 
at  my  cost  a  little  too  far  for  my  temper,  which 
was  never  readily  stirred,  but  flamed  fast  enough 
when  set  properly  alowe,  and  Betty  —  here  too 
your  true  woman  wit  —  saw  it  sooner  than  he  did 
himself,  quick  enough  in  the  uptake  though  he 
was.  He  had  returned  again  to  his  banter  about 
the  supposititious  girl  I  was  trysted  with  up  the 
glen,  and  my  face  showed  my  annoyance. 


424  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"You  think  all  men  like  yourself,"  said  the 
girl  to  him,  "and  all  women  the  same  —  like  the 
common  soldier  you  are." 

"I  think  them  all  darlings,"  he  confessed, 
laughing;  "  God  bless  them,  kind  and  foolish " 

"As  you've  known  them  oftenest, "  she  sup- 
plied coldly. 

"  Or  sedate  and  sensible,"  he  went  on.  "  None 
of  them  but  found  John  M'lver  of  Barbeck  their 
very  true  cavalier." 

"Indeed,"  said  Mistress  Betty,  colder  than 
ever,  some  new  thought  working  within  her,  judg- 
ing from  the  tone.  "  And  yet  you  leave  to-mor- 
row, and  have  never  been  to  Carlunnan."  She 
said  the  last  words  with  a  hesitancy,  blushing 
most  warmly.  To  me  they  were  a  dark  mystery, 
unless  I  was  to  assume,  what  I  did  wildly  for  a 
moment,  only  to  relinquish  the  notion  immedi- 
ately, that  she  had  been  in  the  humour  to  go 
visiting  her  friends  with  him.  M' Ivor's  face 
showed  some  curious  emotion  that  it  baflflcd  me 
to  read,  and  all  that  was  plain  to  me  was  that 
here  were  two  people  with  a  very  strong  thought 
of  a  distressing  kind  between  them. 

"It  would  be  idle  for  me,"  he  said  in  a  little, 
"to  deny  that  I  know  what  you  mean.  But  do 
you  not  believe  you  might  be  doing  me  poor  jus- 
tice in  your  suspicions.''  " 

"It  is  a  topic  I  cannot  come  closer  upon,"  she 
answered;  "I  am  a  woman.  That  forbids  me  and 
that  same  compels  me.  If  nature  does  not  de- 
mand your  attendance  up  there,  then  you  are  a 


JOHN   SPLENDID  425 

man  wronged  by  rumour  or  a  man  dead  to  every 
sense  of  the  human  spirit.  I  have  listened  to 
your  humour  and  laughed  at  your  banter,  for  you 
have  an  art  to  make  people  forget;  but  all  the 
way  I  have  been  finding  my  lightness  broken  in 
on  by  the  feeble  cry  of  a  child  without  a  mother 
—  it  seems,  too,  without  a  father." 

"If  that  is  the  trouble,"  he  said,  turning  away 
with  a  smile  he  did  not  succeed  in  concealing 
either  from  the  lady  or  me,  "you  may  set  your 
mind  at  rest.  The  child  you  mention  has,  from 
this  day,  what  we  may  be  calling  a  godfather." 

"Then  the  tale  's  true.^  "  she  said,  stopping  on 
the  road,  turning  and  gazing  with  neither  mirth 
nor  warmth  in  her  countenance. 

M'lver  hesitated,  and  looked  upon  the  woman 
to  me  as  if  I  could  help  him  in  the  difficulty;  but 
I  must  have  seemed  a  clown  in  the  very  abjection 
of  my  ignorance  of  what  all  this  mystery  was 
about.  He  searched  my  face  and  I  searched  my 
memory,  and  then  I  recollected  that  he  had  told 
me  before  of  Mistress  Brown's  suspicions  of  the 
paternity  of  the  child. 

"I  could  well  wish  your  answer  came  more 
readily,"  said  she  again,  somewhat  bitterly,  "for 
then  I  know  it  would  be  denial." 

"And  perhaps  untruth,  too,"  said  John,  oddly. 
"This  time  it 's  a  question  of  honour,  a  far  more 
complicated  turn  of  circumstances  than  you  can 
fancy,   and  my  answer  takes  time." 

"Guilty!"  she  cried,  "and  you  go  like  this. 
You  know  what  the  story  is,  and  your  whole  con- 


426  JOHN    SPLENDID 

duct  in  front  of  my  charges  shows  you  take  the 
very  lightest  view  of  the  whole  horrible  crime." 

"Say  away,  madame,"  said  M'lver,  assuming 
an  indifference  his  every  feature  gave  the  lie  to. 
"I  'm  no  better  nor  no  worse  than  the  rest  of  the 
world.     That  's  all  I  '11  say." 

"You  have  said  enough  for  me,  then,"  said  the 
girl.  "I  think,  Elrigmore,  if  you  please,  I  '11  not 
trouble  you  and  your  friend  to  come  further  with 
me  now.      I  am  obliged  for  your  society  so  far." 

She  was  gone  before  either  of  -us  could  answer, 
leaving  us  like  a  pair  of  culprits  standing  in  the 
middle  of  the  road.  A  little  breeze  fanned  her 
clothing,  and  they  shook  behind  her  as  to  be  free 
from  some  contamination.  She  had  overtaken 
and  joined  a  woman  in  front  of  her  before  I  had 
recovered  from  my  astonishment.  M'lver  turned 
from  surveying  her  departure  with  lowered  eye- 
brows, and  gave  me  a  look  with  half-a-dozen  con- 
tending thoughts  in  it. 

"That  's  the  end  of  it,"  said  he,  as  much  to 
himself  as  for  my  ear,  "and  the  odd  thing  of  it 
again  is  that  she  never  seemed  so  precious  fine  a 
woman  as  when  it  was  *  a'  bye  wi'  auld  days  and 
you,'  as  the  Scots  song  says." 

"It  beats  me  to  fathom,"  I  confessed.  "Do  I 
understand  that  you  admitted  to  the  lady  that  you 
were  the  father  of  the  child  ?  " 

"I  admitted  nothing,"  he  said,  cunningly,  "if 
you  '11  take  the  trouble  to  think  again.  I  but  let 
the  lady  have  her  own  way,  which  most  of  her 
sex  generally  manage  from  me  in  the  long-run." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  427 

"  But,  man !  you  could  leave  her  only  one  im- 
pression, that  you  are  as  black  as  she  thinks  you, 
and  am  I  not  sure  you  fall  far  short  of  that  ? " 

"Thank  you,"  he  said;  "it  is  good  of  you  to 
say  it.  I  am  for  off  whenever  my  affairs  here  are 
settled,  and  when  I  'm  the  breadth  of  seas  afar 
from  Inneraora,  you  '11  think  as  well  as  you  can 
of  John  M'lver  who  '11  maybe  not  grudge  having 
lost  the  lady's  affection  if  he  kept  his  friend's 
and  comrade's  heart." 

He  was  vastly  moved  as  he  spoke.  He  took 
my  hand  and  wrung  it  fiercely;  he  turned  without 
another  word,  good  or  ill,  and  strode  back  on  his 
way  to  the  camp,  leaving  me  to  seek  my  way  to 
the  town  alone. 


428  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER    XXXH 

For  some  days  I  kept  to  Glen  Shira  as  the  tod 
keeps  to  the  cairn  when  heather  burns,  afraid 
almost  to  let  even  my  thoughts  wander  there  lest 
they  should  fly  back  distressed,  to  say  the  hope  I 
cherished  was  in  vain.  I  worked  in  the  wood 
among  the  pines  that  now  make  rooftrees  for  my 
home,  and  at  nights  I  went  on  ceilidh  among  some 
of  the  poorer  houses  of  the  Glen,  and  found  a 
drug  for  a  mind  uneasy  in  the  tales  our  peasants 
told  around  the  fire.  A  drug,  and  yet  a  drug 
sometimes  with  the  very  disease  in  itself  I  sought 
for  it  to  kill.  For  the  love  of  a  man  for  a  maid 
is  the  one  story  of  all  lands,  of  all  ages,  trick  it 
as  we  may,  and  my  good  people,  telling  their  old 
ancient  histories  round  the  fire,  found,  although 
they  never  knew  it,  a  young  man's  quivering 
heart  a  score  of  times  a  night. 

Still  at  times,  by  day  and  night  —  ay!  in  the 
very  midmost  watches  of  the  stars — I  walked, 
in  my  musing,  as  I  thought,  upon  the  causied 
street,  where  perhaps  I  had  been  sooner  in  the 
actual  fact  if  M* Tver's  departure  had  not  been 
delayed.  He  was  swaggering,  they  told  me, 
about  the  town  in  his  old  regimentals,  every 
pomp  of  the  foreign  soldier  assumed  again  as  if 


JOHN   SPLENDID  429 

they  had  never  been  relaxed  in  all  those  five  or 
six  years  of  peace  and  commerce.  He  drank 
stoutly  in  the  taverns,  and  't  was  constantly, 
"Landlady,  I  'm  the  lawing, "  for  the  fishermen, 
that  they  might  love  him.  A  tale  went  round, 
too,  that  one  morning  he  went  to  a  burial  in  Kil 
malieu,  and  Argile  was  there  seeing  the  last  of 
an  old  retainer  to  his  long  home,  and  old  Mac- 
nachtan  came  riding  down  past  corpse  and  mourner 
with  his  only  reverence  a  finger  to  his  cap. 
"  Come  down  off  your  horse  when  Death  or  Ar- 
gile goes  bye,"  cried  IVLIver,  hauling  the  laird 
off  his  saddle.  But  between  Argile  and  him  were 
no  transactions  ;  the  pride  of  both  would  not  allow 
it,  though  it  was  well  known  that  their  affections 
were  stronger  than  ever  they  had  been  before, 
and  that  Gordon  made  more  than  one  attempt  at 
a  plan  to  bring  them  together. 

It  is  likely,  too,  I  had  been  down  —  leaving 
M'lver  out  of  consideration  altogether  —  had 
there  not  been  the  tales  about  MacLachlan,  tales 
that  came  to  my  ears  in  the  most  miraculous  way, 
with  no  ill  intention  on  the  part  of  the  gossips 
—  about  his  constant  haunting  of  Inneraora  and 
the  company  of  his  cousin.  He  had  been  seen 
there  with  her  on  the  road  to  Carlunnan.  That 
venue  of  all  others !  God  !  did  the  river  sing  for 
him  too  among  its  reeds  and  shallows;  did  the 
sun  tip  Dunchuach  like  a  thimble  and  the  wild 
beast  dally  on  the  way  ?  That  was  the  greatest 
blow  of  all !  It  left  plain  (I  thought  in  my  fool- 
ishness) the  lady's  coolness  when  last  I  met  her; 


430  JOHN   SPLENDID 

for  mc  henceforth  (so  said  bitterness)  the  serious 
affairs  of  life,  that  in  her  notion  set  me  more  than 
courtship.  I  grew  solemn,  so  gloomy  in  spirit 
that  even  my  father  observed  the  ceasing  of  my 
whistle  and  song,  and  the  less  readiness  of  my 
smile.  And  he,  poor  man,  thought  it  the  melan- 
choly of  Inverlochy  and  the  influence  of  this 
ruined  countryside. 

When  I  went  down  to  the  town  again  the  very 
house-fronts  seemed  inhospitable,  so  that  I  must 
pass  the  time  upon  the  quay.  There  are  days  at 
that  season  when  Loch  Finne,  so  calm,  so  crys- 
tal, so  duplicate  of  the  sky,  seems  like  water  sunk 
and  lost  forever  to  wind  and  wave,  when  the  sea- 
birds  doze  upon  its  kindly  bosom  like  bees  upon 
the  flower,  and  a  silence  hangs  that  only  breaks 
in  distant  innuendo  of  the  rivers  or  the  low  of 
cattle  on  the  Cowal  shore.  The  great  bays  lapse 
into  hills  that  float  upon  a  purple  haze,  forest  nor 
lea  has  any  sign  of  spring's  extravagance  or  the 
flame  of  the  autumn  that  fires  Dunchuach  till  it 
blazes  like  a  torch.  All  is  in  the  light  sleep  of 
the  year's  morning,  and  what,  I  have  thought,  if 
God  in  His  pious  whim  should  never  awake  it 
any  more  ? 

It  was  such  a  day  when  I  went  up  and  down 
the  rough  cobble  of  the  quay,  and  to  behold  men 
working  there  at  their  noisy  and  secular  occu- 
pations seemed,  at  first,  a  Sabbath  desecration. 
But  even  they  seemed  affected  by  this  marvellous 
peace  of  sea  and  sky,  and  they  lifted  from  the  net 
or  rested  on  the  tackle  to  look  across  greasy  gun- 


JOHN   SPLENDID  431 

nels  with  some  vague  unquiet  of  the  spirit  at  the 
marvellous  restfulness  of  the  world.  Their  very 
voices  learned  a  softer  note  from  that  lulled  hour 
of  the  enchanted  season,  and  the  faint  blue  smoke 
of  their  den-fires  rose  and  mingled  in  the  clus- 
tered masts  or  nestled  wooing  in  the  drying  sails. 
Then  a  man  in  drink  came  roaring  down  the  quay, 
an  outrage  on  the  scene,  and  the  magic  of  the  day 
was  gone!  The  boats  bobbed  and  nudged  each 
other  or  strained  at  the  twanging  cord  as  seamen 
and  fishers  spanged  from  deck  to  deck ;  rose  cries 
in  loud  and  southward  Gaelic  or  the  lowlands  of 
Air.  The  world  was  no  longer  dreaming  but 
stark  awake,  all  but  the  sea  and  the  lapsing  bays 
and  the  brown  floating  hills.  Town  Inneraora 
bustled  to  its  marge.  Here  was  merchandise, 
here  the  pack  and  the  bale;  snuffy  men  in 
perukes,  knee-breeched  and  portly,  came  and 
piped  in  high  English,  managing  the  transport  of 
their  munitions  ashore. 

I  was  standing  in  the  midst  of  the  throng  of 
the  quay-head,  with  my  troubled  mind  finding 
ease  in  the  industry  and  interest  of  those  people 
without  loves  or  jealousies,  and  only  their  poor 
merchandise  to  exercise  them,  when  I  started  at 
the  sound  of  a  foot  coming  up  the  stone  slip  from 
the  water-edge.  I  turned,  and  who  was  there  but 
MacLachlan  .-*  He  was  all  alone  but  for  a  haunch- 
man,  a  gillie-wetfoot  as  we  call  him,  and  he  had 
been  set  on  the  slip  by  a  wherry  that  had  ap- 
proached from  Cowal  side  unnoticed  by  me  as  I 
stood  in  meditation.      As  he  came  up  the  sloping 


432  JOHN    SPLENDID 

way,  picking  his  footsteps  upon  the  slimy  stones, 
he  gave  no  heed  to  the  identity  of  the  person  be- 
fore him,  and  with  my  mood  in  no  way  favourable 
to  polite  discourse  with  the  fellow,  I  gave  a  pace 
or  two  round  the  elbow  of  the  quay,  letting  him 
pass  on  his  way  up  among  the  clanking  rings  and 
chains  of  the  moored  gaberts,  the  bales  of  the 
luggers,  and  the  brawny  and  crying  mariners. 
He  was  not  a  favourite  among  the  quay-folk,  this 
pompous  little  gentleman,  with  his  nose  in  the 
air  and  his  clothing  so  very  gaudy.  The  Low- 
lands men  might  salute  his  gentility  if  they  cared; 
no  residenters  of  the  place  did  so,  but  turned 
their  shoulders  on  hi-m  and  were  very  busy  with 
their  affairs  as  he  passed.  He  went  bye  with  a 
waff  of  wind  in  his  plaid ing,  and  his  haunch-man 
as  he  passed  at  a  discreet  distance  got  the  double 
share  of  jibe  and  glunch  from  the  mariners. 

At  first  I  thought  of  going  home ;  a  dread  came 
on  me  that  if  I  waited  longer  in  the  town  I  might 
come  upon  this  intruder  and  his  cousin,  when  it 
would  sore  discomfort  me  to  do  so.  Thus  I  went 
slowly  up  the  quay,  and  what  I  heard  in  the  bye- 
going  put  a  new  thought  in  my  head. 

Two  or  three  seamen  were  talking  together  as 
I  passed,  with  nudges  and  winks  and  sly  laughs, 
not  natives  of  the  place  but  from  further  up  the 
loch,  yet  old  frequenters  with  every  chance  to 
know  the  full  ins  and  outs  of  what  they  discoursed 
upon.  I  heard  but  three  sentences  as  I  passed; 
they  revealed  that  MacLachlan  at  Kilmichael 
market  had  once  bragged  of  an  amour  in  Innc- 


JOHN    SPLENDID  433 

raora.  That  was  all !  But  it  was  enough  to  set 
every  drop  of  blood  in  my  body  boiling.  I  had 
given  the  dog  credit  for  a  decent  affection,  and 
here  he  was  narrating  a  filthy  and  impossible 
story.  Liar!  liar!  liar!  At  first  the  word  rose 
to  my  mouth,  and  I  had  to  choke  it  at  my  teeth 
for  fear  it  should  reveal  my  passion  to  the  people 
as  I  passed  through  among  them  with  a  face 
inflamed;  then  doubt  arose,  a  contention  of  rec- 
ollections, numb  fears  —  but  the  girl's  eyes  tri- 
umphed :  I  swore  to  myself  she  at  least  should 
never  know  the  villany  of  this  vulgar  and  lying 
rumour  set  about  the  country  by  a  rogue. 

Now  all  fear  of  facing  the  street  deserted  me. 
I  felt  a  man  upright,  imbued  with  a  strong  sense 
of  justice :  I  felt  I  must  seek  out  John  Splendid 
and  get  his  mind,  of  all  others,  upon  a  villany  he 
could  teach  me  to  avenge.  I  found  him  at  As- 
kaig's  corner,  a  flushed  man  with  perhaps  (as  I 
thought  at  first)  too  much  spirits  in  him  to  be 
the  most  sensible  of  advisers  in  a  matter  of  such 
delicacy. 

"  Elrigmore  !  "  he  cried  ;  "  sir,  I  give  you  wel- 
come to  Inneraora !  You  will  not  know  the  place, 
it  has  grown  so  much  since  you  last  visited  its 
humble  street."  ^ 

"I'm  glad  to  see  you  now,  John,"  I  said  hur- 
riedly. "  I  would  sooner  see  you  than  any  other 
living  person  here." 

He  held  up  a-  finger  and  eyed  me  pawkily. 
"  Come,  man,  come  1  "  he  said,  laughing.  "  On 
your  oath  now,    is  there  not  a  lady.-*      And  that 

28 


434  JOHN    SPLENDID 

minds  mc;  you  have  no  more  knowledge  of  the 
creatures,  no  more  pluck  in  their  presence,  than 
a  child.  Heavens,  what  a  soldier  of  fortune  is 
this!  Seven  years  among  the  army;  town  to 
town,  camp  to  camp,  here  to-day  and  away  to- 
morrow, with  a  soldier's  pass  to  love  upon  your 
back  and  haunch,  and  yet  you  have  not  learned 
to  lift  the  sneck  of  a  door,  but  must  be  tap-tap- 
ping with  your  finger-nails." 

"  I  do  not  know  what  you  mean,"  said  I. 

"Lord!  Lord!"  he  cried,  pretending  amaze- 
ment, "and  here's  schooling!  Just  think  it  over 
for  yourself.  You  are  not  an  ill-looking  fellow 
(though  I  think  I  swing  a  kilt  better  myself),  you 
are  the  proper  age  (though  it 's  wonderful  what  a 
youngish-looking  man  of  not  much  over  forty 
may  do),  you  have  a  name  for  sobriety,  and  Elrig- 
more  carries  a  good  many  head  of  cattle  and  com- 
mands a  hundred  swords,  — would  a  girl  with  any 
wisdom  and  no  other  sweetheart  in  her  mind  turn 
her  back  on  such  a  list  of  virtues  and  graces.''  If 
I  had  your  reputation  and  your  estate,  I  could 
have  the  pick  of  the  finest  women  in  Argile  — 
ay,   and  far  beyond  it." 

"Nevermind  about  that  just  now,"  I  demanded, 
gypping  my  preacher  by  the  hand  and  forcing 
him  with  me  out  of  tire  way  of  the  passers-by, 
whose  glance  upon  us  would  have  seemed  an  in- 
delicacy when  we  were  discussing  so  precious  a 
thing  as  my  lady's  honour. 

"But  I  shall  mind  it,"  insisted  M'lver,  purs- 
ing his  lips  as  much  to  check  a  hiccough  as  to 


JOHN    SPLENDID  435 

express  his  determination.  "  It  seems  I  am  the 
only  man  dare  take  the  liberty.  Fie  on  ye !  man, 
fie !  you  have  not  once  gone  to  see  the  Provost  or 
his  daughter  since  I  saw  you  last.  I  dare  not  go 
myself  for  the  sake  of  a  very  stupid  blunder ;  but 
I  met  the  old  man  coming  up  the  way  an  hour 
ago,  and  he  was  asking  what  ailed  you  at  them. 
Will  I  tell  you  something,  Colin.?  The  Provost  's 
a  gleg  man,  but  he  's  not  so  gleg  as  his  wife. 
The  dame  for  me !  say  I,  in  every  household,  for 
it 's  her  daughter's  love-affairs  she  's  to  keep  an 
eye  on." 

"  You  know  so  much  of  the  lady  and  her  peo- 
ple," said  I,  almost  losing  patience,  "that  it 's  a 
wonder  you  never  sought  her  for  yourself." 

He  laughed.  "Do  you  think  so?"  he  said. 
"  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  result ;  at  least  I  would 
have  had  no  doubt  of  it  a  week  or  two  ago,  if  I 
had  taken  advantage  of  my  chances."  Then  he 
laughed  anew.  "I  said  Mrs.  Brown  was  gleg; 
I'm  just  as  gleg  myself." 

This  tipsy  nonsense"  began  to  annoy  me;  but  it 
was  useless  to  try  to  check  it,  for  every  sentence 
uttered  seemed  a  spark  to  his  vanity. 

"It 's  about  Betty  I  want  to  speak,"  I  said. 

"And  it 's  very  likely  too;  I  would  not  need  to 
be  very  gleg  to  see  that.  She  does  not  want  to 
speak  to  me,  however,  or  of  me,  as  you  '11  find  out 
when  once  you  see  her.  I  am  in  her  black  books 
sure  enough,  for  I  saw  her  turn  on  the  street  not 
an  hour  ago  to  avoid  me." 

"She'll  not  do  that  to  MacLachlan,"  I  put  in, 


436  JOHN    SPLENDID 

glad  of  the  opening,  "  unless  she  hears  —  and 
God  forbid  it  —  that  the  scamp  lightlies  her  name 
at  common  fairs." 

M'lver  drew  himself  up,  stopped,  and  seemed 
to  sober. 

"What's  this  you're  telling  me.?"  he  asked, 
and  I  went  over  the  incident  on  the  quay.  It 
was  enough.  It  left  him  as  hot  as  myself.  He 
fingered  at  his  coat-buttons  and  his  cuffs,  fasten- 
ing and  unfastening  them;  he  played  nervously 
with  the  hilt  of  his  dirk;  up  would  go  his  brows 
and  down  again  like  a  bird  upon  his  prey;  his 
lips  would  tighten  on  his  teeth,  and  all  the  time 
he  was  muttering  in  his  pick  of  languages  senti- 
ments natural  to  the  occasion.  Gaelic  is  the 
poorest  of  tongues  to  swear  in  :  it  has  only  a  hash 
of  borrowed  terms  from  Lowland  Scots;  but  my 
cavalier  was  well  able  to  make  up  the  deficiency, 

"Quite  so;  very  true  and  very  comforting,"  I 
said  at  last;  "but  what's  to  be  done.?" 

"What's  to  be  done.?"  said  he  with  a  start. 
"  Surely  to  God  there  's  no  doubt  about  that ! " 

"  No,  sir ;  I  hope  you  know  me  better.  But 
how's  it  to  be  done.?  I  thought  of  going  up  in 
the  front  of  the  whole  quay  and  making  him  chew 
his  lie  at  the  point  of  my  dagger.  Then  I  thought 
more  formality  was  needed  —  a  friend  or  two,  a 
select  venue,  a  careful  leisure  time  for  so  impor- 
tant a  meeting," 

"  But  what 's  the  issue  upon  which  the  rencontre 
shall  take  place.?"  asked  M'lver,  it  seemed  to 
me,   with  ridiculous  scrupulosity. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  437 

"Why  need  you  ask?"  said  I.  "You  do  not 
expect  me  to  invite  him  to  repeat  the  insult  or 
exaggerate  the  same." 

M'lver  turned  on  me  almost  roughly  and  shook 
me  by  the  shoulder.  "  Man  !  "  said  he,  "  wake  up 
and  do  not  let  your  wits  hide  in  the  heels  of  your 
boots.  Are  you  clown  enough  to  think  of  send- 
ing a  lady's  name  around  the  country  tacked  on 
to  a  sculduddry  tale  like  this.?  You  must  make 
the  issue  somewhat  more  politic  than  that." 

"I  agree  with  you,"  I  confessed;  "it  was  stu- 
pid of  me  not  to  think  of  it,  but  what  can  I  do.? 
I  have  no  other  quarrel  with  the  man." 

"Make  one,  then/'  said  M'lver.  "I  cannot 
comprehend  where  you  learned  your  trade  as  cava- 
lier, or  what  sort  of  company  you  kept  in  Mac- 
kay's,  if  you  did  not  pick  up  and  practise  the  art 
of  forcing  a  quarrel  with  a  man  on  any  issue  you 
cared  to  choose.  In  ten  minutes  I  could  make 
this  young  fellow  put  down  his  gage  in  a  dispute 
about  the  lacing  of  boots." 

"But  in  that  way  at  least  I  'm  the  poorest  of 
soldiers  ;  I  never  picked  a  quarrel,  and  yet  here  's 
one  that  sets  my  gorge  to  my  palate,  yet  cannot 
be  fought  upon. " 

"Tuts,  tuts!  man,"  he  cried,  "it  seems  that, 
after  all,  you  must  leave  the  opening  of  this  little 
play  to  John  M'lver.  Come  with  me  a  bit  yont 
the  Cross  here  and  take  a  lesson." 

He  led  me  up  the  wide  pend  close  and  round 
the  back  of  old  Stonefield's  dwelling,  and  into  a 
corner  of  a  lane  that  gave  upon  the  fields,  yet  at 
the  same  time  kept  a  plain  view  of  the  door  of 


438  JOHN    SPLENDID 

Askaig's  house,  where  we  guessed  MacLachlan 
was  now  on  his  visit  to  the  Provost's  family. 

"Let  us  stand  here,"  said  he,  "and  I  '11  swear 
I  'm  not  very  well  acquainted  with  our  friend's 
habits  if  he  's  not  passing  this  way  to  Carlunnan 
sometime  in  the  next  ten  minutes,  for  I  saw  Mis- 
tress Betty  going  up  there,  as  I  said,  not  so  very 
long  ago." 

This  hint  at  MacLachlan's  persistency  exasper- 
ated me  the  more.  I  felt  that  to  have  him  by  the 
throat  would  be  a  joy  second  only  to  one  other  in 
the  world. 

M'lver  saw  my  passion  —  it  was  ill  to  miss 
seeing  it  —  and  seemed  struck  for  the  first  time 
by  the  import  of  what  we  were  engaged  upon. 

"  We  were  not  given  to  consider  the  end  of  a 
duello  from  the  opening  when  abroad,"  he  said; 
"  but  that  was  because  we  were  abroad,  and  had 
no  remonstrance  and  reminder  in  the  face  of 
familiar  fields  and  houses  and  trees,  and  the  pass- 
ing footsteps  of  our  own  people.  Here,  however, 
the  end  's  to  be  considered  from  the  beginning  — 
have  you  weighed  the  risks  in  your  mind.-'  " 

"I've  weighed  nothing,"  said  I  shortly,  "ex- 
cept that  I  feel  in  me  here  that  I  shall  have  his 
blood  before  nightfall." 

"He's  a  fairly  good  hand  with  his  weapon, 
they  tell  me." 

"  If  he  was  a  wizard,  with  the  sword  of  Great 
Donald,  I  would  touch  him  to  the  vitals.  Have 
I  not  learned  a  little,  if  you  '11  give  me  the  credit, 
from  Para  Mor .''  " 

"I    forgot   that,"    said    M'lver;    "you'll    come 


JOHN    SPLENDID  439 

through  it  all  right.  And  here's  our  man  com- 
ing up  the  lane.  No  anger  now;  nothing  to  be 
said  on  your  side  till  I  give  you  a  sign,  and  then 
I  can  leave  the  rest  to  your  wisdom." 

MacLachlan  came  staving  up  the  cobbles  in  a 
great  hurry,  flailing  the  air  as  he  went  with  a 
short  rattan,  for  he  affected  some  of  the  foppish 
customs  the  old  officers  brought  back  from  the 
Continent.  He  was  for  passing  us  with  no  more 
than  a  jerk  of  the  head,  but  M'lver  and  I  between 
us  took  up  the  mouth  of  the  lane,  and  as  John 
seemed  to  smile  on  him  like  one  with  gossip  to 
exchange,   he  was  bound  to  stop. 

"Always  on  the  going  foot,  MacLachlan;" 
said  John  airily.  "  I  never  see  a  young  gentle- 
man of  your  age  and  mettle  but  I  wish  he  could 
see  the  wisdom  of  putting  both  to  the  best  pur- 
pose on  the  field." 

"  With  your  cursed  foreigners,  I  suppose  you 
mean,"  said  the  young  fellow.  "I  could  scarcely 
go  as  a  private  pikeman  like  yourself." 

"  I  daresay  not,  I  daresay  not,"  answered  M'lver, 
pricked  at  his  heart  (I  could  tell  by  his  eye)  by 
this  reflection  upon  his  humble  office,  but  keep- 
ing a  marvellously  cool  front  to  his  cockerel. 
"And  now  when  I  think  of  it  I  am  afraid  you 
have  neither  the  height  nor  width  for  even  so 
ornamental  a  post  as  an  ensign's." 

MacLachlan  restrained  himself  too,  unwilling, 
no  doubt,  as  I  thought,  to  postpone  his  chase  of 
the  lady  by  so  much  time  as  a  wrangle  with  John 
M'lver  would  take  up.     He  affected  to  laugh  at 


440  JOHN   SPLENDID 

Splcndid's  rejoinder,  turned  the  conversation  upon 
the  disjasket  condition  of  the  town,  and  edged 
round  to  get  as  polite  a  passage  as  possible  be- 
tween us,  without  betraying  any  haste  to  sever 
himself  from  our  company.  But  both  John  Splen- 
did and  I  had  our  knees  pretty  close  together,  and 
the  very  topic  he  started  seemed  to  be  the  short 
cut  to  the  quarrel  we  sought. 

"A  poor  town  indeed,"  admitted  M'lver,  read- 
ily, "but  it  might  be  worse.  It  can  be  built 
anew.  There  's  nothing  in  nature,  from  a  pigsty 
to  a  name  for  valour  and  honour,  that  a  wise  man 
may  not  patch  up  somehow." 

MacLachlan's  retort  to  this  opening  was  on 
the  tip  of  his  tongue;  but  his  haste  made  him 
surrender  a  taunt  as  likely  to  cause  trouble. 
"You're  very  much  in  the  proverb  way  to-day, " 
was  all  he  said.  "I  'm  sure  I  wish  I  saw  Inne- 
raora  as  hale  and  complete  as  ever  it  was ;  it  never 
had  a  more  honest  friend  than  myself." 

"That  one  has  missed,"  thought  I,  standing  by 
in  a  silent  part  of  this  three-cornered  convention. 
M'lver  smiled  mildly,  half,  I  should  think,  at  the 
manner  in  which  his  thrust  had  been  foiled,  half 
to  keep  MacLachlan  still  with  us.  Mis  next 
attack  was  more  adroit  though  roundabout,  and 
it  effected  its  purpose. 

"I  see  you  are  on  your  way  up  to  the  camp," 
said  he,  with  an  appearance  of  indifference.  "  We 
were  just  thinking  of  a  daunder  there  ourselves." 

"No,"  said  MacLachlan,  shortly;  "I'm  for 
farther  up  the  Glen." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  441 

"Then  at  least  we'll  have  your  company  part 
of  the  way,"  said  John,  and  the  three  of  us  walked 
slowly  off,  the  young  gentleman  with  no  great 
warmth  at  the  idea,  which  was  likely  to  spoil  his 
excursion  to  some  degree.  M'lver  took  the  place 
between  us,  and  in  the  rear,  twenty  paces,  came 
the  gille-cas-flcuch. 

"I  have  been  bargaining  for  a  horse  up  here," 
said  John  in  a  while,  "and  I  'm  anxious  that 
Elrigmore  should  see  it.  You  '11  have  heard  I  'm 
off  again  on  the  old  road." 

"There's  a  rumour  of  it,"  said  MacLachlan, 
cogitating  on  his  own  affairs,  or  perhaps  wonder- 
ing what  our  new  interest  in  his  company  was 
due  to. 

"Ah!  it's  in  my  blood,"  said  John,  "in  my 
blood  and  bones!  Argile  was  a  fairly  good  master 
—  so  to  call  him  —  but  —  well,  you  understand 
yourself;  a  man  of  my  kind  at  a  time  like  this 
feels  more  comfortable  anywhere  else  than  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  his  chief." 

"I  daresay,"  replied  MacLachlan,  refusing  the 
hook,  and  yet  with  a  sneer  in  his  accent. 

"  Have  you  heard  that  his  lordship  and  I  are  at 
variance  since  our  return  from  the  North  .^  " 

"Oh!  there's  plenty  of  gossip  in  the  town," 
said  MacLachlan.  "It's  common  talk  that  you 
threw  your  dagger  in  his  face.  My  father,  who  's 
a  small  chief  enough  so  far  as  wealth  of  men  and 
acres  goes,  would  have  used  the  weapon  to  let  out 
the  hot  blood  of  his  insulter  there  and  then." 

"I    daresay,"   said    M'lver.      "You're   a   hot- 


442  JOHN   SPLENDID 

headed  clan.  And  MacCailein  has  his  own 
ways." 

"He's  welcome  to  keep  them  too,"  answered 
the  young  fellow,  his  sneer  in  no  ways  abated.  I 
became  afraid  that  his  carefully  curbed  tongue 
would  not  give  us  our  opening  before  we  parted, 
and  was  inclined  to  force  his  hand;  but  M'lver 
came  in  quickly  and  more  astutely. 

"How.''"  said  he;  "what 's  your  meaning?  Are 
you  in  the  notions  that  he  has  anything  to  learn 
of  courtesy  and  gallantry  on  the  other  side  of  the 
loch  at  Strathlachlan }  "  ' 

MacLachlan's  eyes  faltered  a  little  under  his 
pent  brows.  Perhaps  he  had  a  suspicion  of  the 
slightest  that  he  was  being  goaded  on  for  some 
purpose,  but  if  he  had,  his  temper  was  too  raw  to 
let  him  qualify  his  retort  with  calmness, 

"Do  you  know,  Barbreck,"  said  he,  "I  would 
not  care  to  say  much  about  what  your  nobleman 
has  to  learn  or  unlearn.-'  As  for  the  gallantry  — 
good  Lord,  now !  —  did  you  ever  hear  of  one  of 
my  house  leaving  his  men  to  shift  for  themselves 
when  blows  were  going.''  " 

M'lver,  with  an  utterance  the  least  thought 
choked  by  an  anger  due  to  the  insult  he  had 
wrought  for,  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  at  the 
same  time  gave  me  his  elbow  in  the  side  for  his 
sign. 

"I'm  sorry  to  hear  you  say  that  about  Gilles- 
beg  Gruamach,"  said  he.  "Some  days  ago,  half 
as  much  from  you  would  have  called  for  my  cor- 
rection; but  I  'm  out  of  his  lordship's  service,  as 


JOHN   SPLENDID  443 

the  rumour  rightly  goes,  and  seeing  the  manner 
of  my  leaving  it  was  as  it  was,  I  have  no  right  to 
be  his  advocate  now." 

"  But  I  have !  "  said  I  hotly,  stopping  and  fac- 
ing MacLachlan,  with  my  excuse  for  the  quarrel 
now  ready.  "Do  you  dare  come  here  and  call 
down  the  credit  of  MacCailein  Mor.-*  "  I  demanded 
in  the  English,  with  an  idea  of  putting  him  at 
once  in  a  fury  at  having  to  reply  in  a  language  he 
spoke  but  indifferently. 

His  face  blanched;  he  knew  I  was  doubling  my 
insult  for  him.  The  skin  of  his  jaw  twitched  and 
his  nostrils  expanded;  a  hand  went  to  his  dirk- 
hilt  on  the  moment. 

"And  is  it  that  you  are  the  advocate.-'"  he 
cried  to  me  in  a  laughable  kind  of  Scots.  I  was 
bitter  enough  to  mock  his  words  and  accent  with 
the  airs  of  one  who  has  travelled  far  and  knows 
other  languages  than  his  own. 

"Keep  to  your  Gaelic,"  he  cried  in  that  lan- 
guage ;  "  the  other  may  be  good  enough  to  be 
insolent  in;  let  us  have  our  own  for  courtesies." 

"Any  language,"  said  I,  "is  good  enough  to 
throw  the  lie  in  your  face  when  you  call  Mac- 
Cailein a  coward." 

"Grace  of  God!"  said  he;  "I  called  him  noth- 
ing of  the  kind  ;  but  it  's  what  he  is  all  the  same. " 

Up  came  his  valet  and  stood  at  his  arm,  blade 
out,  and  his  whole  body  ready  to  spring  at  a  sig- 
nal from  his  master. 

I  kept  my  anger  out  of  my  head,  and  sunk  to 
the  pit   of    my   stomach   while   I    spoke    to    him. 


444  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"You  have  said  too  much  about  Archibald,  Mar- 
quis of  Argile,"  I  said.  "A  week  or  two  ago, 
the  quarrel  was  more  properly  M'lver's;  now  that 
he's  severed  by  his  own  act  from  the  clan,  I'm 
ready  to  take  his  place  and  chastise  you  for  your 
insolence.  Are  you  willing,  John?"  I  asked, 
turning  to  my  friend. 

"If  I  cannot  draw  a  sword  for  my  cousin  I  can 

at  least  second  his  defender,"  he  answered  quickly. 

•  MacLachlan's    colour    came   back;    he    looked 

from  one  to  the  other  of  us,  and  made  an  effort 

to  laugh  with  cunning. 

"There's  more  here  than  I  can  fathom,  gen- 
tlemen," said  he.  "I'll  swear  this  is  a  forced 
quarrel ;  but  in  any  case  I  fear  none  of  you. 
Alasdair,"  he  said,  turning  to  his  man,  who  it 
seemed  was  his  dalta  or  foster-brother,  "we'll 
accommodate  those  two  friends  of  ours  when  and 
where  they  like." 

"Master,"  cried  the  gillie,  I  would  like  well  to 
have  this  on  my  own  hands,"  and  he  looked  at  me 
with  great  venom  as  he  spoke. 

MacLachlan  laughed.  "They  may  do  their 
dangerous  work  by  proxy  in  this  part  of  the 
shire,"  said  he;  "but  I  think  our  own  Cowal 
ways  are  better;    every  man  his  own  quarrel." 

"And  now  is  the  time  to  settle  it,"  said  I; 
"the  very  place  for  our  purpose  is  less  than  a 
twenty  minutes'  walk  off." 

Not  a  word  more  was  said ;  the  four  of  us 
stepped  out  again. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  445 


CHAPTER    XXXHI 

We  went  along  the  road  two  and  two,  M'lver 
keeping  company  behind  with  the  valet,  who 
would  have  stabbed  me  in  the  back  in  all  likeli- 
hood ere  we  had  made  half  our  journey,  had  there 
been  no  such  caution.  We  walked  at  a  good 
pace,  and  fast  as  we  walked  it  was  not  fast  enough 
for  my  eagerness,  so  that  my  long  steps  set  the 
shorter  ones  of  MacLachlan  pattering  beside  me 
in  a  most  humorous  way  that  annoyed  him  much, 
to  judge  from  the  efforts  he  made  to  keep  time 
and  preserve  his  dignity.  Not  a  word,  good  or 
bad,  was  exchanged  between  us ;  he  left  the  guid- 
ance to  me,  and  followed  without  a  pause,  when, 
over  the  tip  of  the  brae  at  Tarra  Dubh,  I  turned 
sharply  to  the  left  and  plunged  into  the  wood. 

In  this  part  of  the  wood  there  is  a  laracJi  or  site 
of  an  ancient  church.  No  stone  stands  there  to- 
day, no  one  lives  who  has  known  another  who  has 
heard  another  say  he  has  seen  a  single  stone  of 
this  umquhile  house  of  God;  but  the  sward  lies 
flat  and  square  as  in  a  garden,  levelled,  and  in 
summer  fringed  with  clusters  of  the  nettle  that 
grows  over  the  ruins  of  man  with  a  haste  that 
seems  to  mock  the  brevity  of  his  interests,  and 
the  husbandman  and  the  forester  for  generations 


446  JOHN    SPLENDID 

have  put  no  spade  to  its  soil.  A  cill  or  cell  we 
call  it  in  the  language;  and  the  saying  goes 
among  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood  that  on 
fhe  eve  of  Saint  Patrick  bells  ring  in  this  glade 
of  the  forest,  sweet,  soft,  dreamy  bells,  muffled 
in  a  mist  of  years  —  bells  whose  sounds  have 
come,  as  one  might  fancy,  at  their  stated  interval, 
after  pealing  in  a  wave  about  God's  universe  from 
star  to  star,  back  to  the  place  of  their  first  chim- 
ing. Ah !  the  monk  is  no  longer  there  to  hear 
them,  only  the  mavis  calls  and  the  bee  in  its 
period  hums  where  matins  rose.  A  queer  thought 
this,  a  thought  out  of  all  keeping  with  my  bloody 
mission  in  the  wood,  which  was  to  punish  this 
healthy  yoiith  beside  me;  yet  to-day,  looking 
back  on  the  occasion,  I  do  not  wonder  that,  go- 
ing a-murdering,  my  mind  in  that  glade  should 
soften  by  some  magic  of  its  atmosphere.  For, 
ever  was  I  a  dreamer,  as  this  my  portion  of  his- 
tory may  long  since  have  disclosed.  Ever  must 
I  be  fronting  the  great  dumb  sorrow  of  the  uni- 
verse, thinking  of  loves  undone,  of  the  weakness 
of  man,  poor  man,  a  stumbler  under  the  stars,  the 
sickening  lapse  of  time,  the  vast  and  awesome 
voids  left  by  people  dead,  laughter  quelled,  eyes 
shut  for  evermore,  and  scenes  evanished.  And  it 
was  ever  at  the  crisis  of  things  my  mind  took  on 
this  mood  of  thought  and  pity. 

It  was  not  of  my  own  case  I  reflected  there, 
but  on  the  great  swooning  silences  that  might  be 
tenanted  ere  the  sun  dropped  behind  the  firs  by 
the  ghost  of  him  I  walked  with.      Not  of  my  own 


JOHN    SPLENDID  447 

father,  but  of  an  even  older  man  in  a  strath  be- 
yond the  water  hearing  a  rap  at  his  chamber  door 
to-night  and  a  voice  of  horror  tell  him  he  had  no 
more  a  son.  A  fool,  a  braggart,  a  liar  the  less, 
but  still  he  must  leave  a  vacancy  at  the  hearth! 
My  glance  could  not  keep  off  the  shoulder  of  him 
as  he  walked  cockily  beside  me,  a  healthy  brown 
upon  his  neck,  and  I  shivered  to  think  of  this 
hour  as  the  end  of  him,  and  of  his  clay  in  a  little 
stretched  upon  the  grass  that  grew  where  psalm 
had  chanted  and  the  feet  of  holy  men  had  passed. 
Kill  him !  The  one  thrust  of  fence  I  dare  not 
neglect  was  as  sure  as  the  arrow  of  fate;  I  knew 
myself  in  my  innermost  his  executioner. 

It  was  a  day,  I  have  said,  of  exceeding  calm, 
with  no  trace  left  almost  of  the  winter  gone,  and 
the  afternoon  came  on  with  a  crimson  upon  the 
west,  and  numerous  birds  in  flying  companies 
settled  upon  the  bushes.  The  firs  gave  a  per- 
fume from  their  tassels  and  plumes,  and  a  little 
burn  among  the  bushes  gurgled  so  softly,  so  like 
a  sound  of  liquor  in  a  goblet,  that  it  mustered  the 
memories  of  good  companionship.  No  more  my 
mind  was  on  the  knave  and  liar,  but  on  the  nu- 
merous kindnesses  of  man. 

We  stepped  in  upon  the  bare  laiacJi  with  the 
very  breath  checked  upon  our  lips.  The  trees 
stood  round  it  and  back,  knowing  it  sanctuary ; 
tall  trees,  red,  and  rough  at  the  hide,  cracked 
and  splintered  in  roaring  storms;  savage  trees, 
coarse  and  vehement,  but  respecting  that  patch  of 
blessed  memory  vacant  quite  but  of  ourselves  and 


448  JOHN    SPLENDID 

a  little  bird  who  turned  his  crimson  breast  upon 
us  for  a  moment  then  vanished  with  a  thrill  of 
song.  Crimson  sky,  crimson-vested  bird,  the 
colour  of  that  essence  I  must  be  releasing  with 
the  push  of  a  weapon  at  that  youth  beside  me ! 

John  Splendid  was  the  first  to  break  upon  the 
silence. 

"  I  was  never  so  much  struck  with  the  Sunday 
feeling  of  a  place,"  he  said;  "I  daresay  we  could 
find  a  less  melancholy  spot  for  our  meeting  if  we 
searched  for  it,  but  the  day  goes,  and  I  must  not 
be  putting  off  an  interesting  event  both  of  you, 
I  'm  sure,  are  eager  to  begin." 

"Indeed  we  might  have  got  a  more  suitable 
place  in  many  ways,"  I  confessed,  my  hands  be- 
hind me  with  every  scrap  of  passion  gone  from 
my  heart. 

MacLachlan  showed  no  such  dubiety.  "  What 
ails  you  at  the  place?"  he  asked,  throwing  his 
plaid  to  his  servant,  and  running  his  jacket  off  its 
wooden  buttons  at  one  tug.  "  It  seems  to  me  a 
most  particularly  fine  place  for  our  business. 
But  of  course,"  he  added  with  a  sneer,  "I  have 
not  the  experience  of  two  soldiers  by  trade,  who 
are  so  keen  to  force  the  combat." 

He  threw  off  his  belt,  released  the  sword  from 
its  scabbard  —  a  clumsy  weapon  of  its  kind,  ab- 
rupt, heavy,  and  ill-balanced,  I  could  tell  by  its 
slow  response  to  his  wrist  as  he  made  a  pass  or 
two  in  the  air  to  get  the  feel  of  it.  He  was  in  a 
cold  bravado,  the  lad,  with  his  spirit  up,  and 
utterly  reckless  of  aught  that  might  happen  him, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  449 

now  saying  a  jocular  word  to  his  man,  and  now 
gartering  his  hose  more  tightly. 

I  let  myself  be  made  ready  by  John  Splendid 
without  so  much  as  putting  a  hand  to  buckle,  for 
I  was  sick  sorry  that  we  had  set  out  upon  this 
adventure.  Shall  any  one  say  fear.-'  It  was  as 
far  from  fear  as  it  was  from  merriment.  I  have 
known  fear  in  my  time  —  the  fear  of  the  night,  of 
tumultuous  sea,  of  shot-ploughed  space  to  be  trav- 
ersed inactively  and  slowly,  so  my  assurance  is 
no  braggadocio,  but  the  simple  truth.  The  very 
sword  itself,  when  I  had  it  in  my  hand,  felt  like 
something  alive  and  vengeful. 

Quick  as  we  were  in  preparing,  the  sun  was 
quicker  in  descending,  and  as  we  faced  each 
other,  without  any  of  the  parades  of  foreign 
fence,  the  sky  hung  like  a  bloody  curtain  be- 
tween the  trees  behind  MacLachlan. 

M'lver  and  the  servant  now  stood  aside  and  the 
play  began.  MacLachlan  engaged  with  the  left 
foot  forward,  the  trick  of  a  man  who  is  used  to 
the  targaid,  and  I  saw  my  poor  fool's  doom  in  the 
antiquity  of  his  first  guard.  In  two  minutes  I 
had  his  whole  budget  of  the  art  laid  bare  to  me; 
he  had  but  four  parries  —  quarte  and  tierce  for 
the  high  lines,  with  septime  and  second  for  the 
low  ones  —  and  had  never  seen  a  counter-parry  or 
lunge  in  the  whole  course  of  his  misspent  life. 

"Little  hero!"  thought  I,  "thou  art  a  spitted 
cockerel  already,  and  yet  hope,  the  blind,  the 
ignorant,   has  no  suspicion  of  it!" 

A  faint  chill  breeze  rose  and  sighed  among  the 
29 


450  JOHN   SPLENDID 

wood,  breathed  from  the  west  that  faced  me,  a 
breeze  bearing  the  odour  of  the  tree  more  strong 
than  before,  and  of  corrupt  leafage  in  the  heughs. 
Our  weapons  tinkled  and  rasped,  the  true-points 
hissed  and  the  pommels  rang,  and  into  the  midst 
of  this  song  of  murderous  game  there  trespassed 
the  innocent  love-lilt  of  a  bird.  I  risked  him  the 
flash  of  an  eye  as  he  stood,  a  becking  black  body 
on  a  bough,  his  yellow  beak  shaking  out  a  flutey 
note  of  passionate  serenade.  Thus  the  irony  of 
nature;  no  heed  for  us,  the  head  and  crown  of 
things  created  :  the  bird  would  build  its  home  and 
hatch  its  young  upon  the  sapling  whose  roots  were 
soaked  by  young  MacLachlan's  blood. 

His  blood  !  That  was  now  the  last  thing  I  de- 
sired. He  fought  with  suppleness  and  strength, 
if  not  with  art ;  he  fought,  too,  with  venom  in 
his  strokes,  his  hair  tossed  high  upon  his  temples, 
his  eyes  the  whitest  of  his  person,  as  he  stood,  to 
his  own  advantage,  that  I  never  grudged  him, 
with  his  back  against  the  sunset.  I  contented 
with  defence  till  he  cursed  with  a  baffled  accent. 
His  man  called  pitcously  and  eagerly;  but  M'lver 
checked  him,  and  the  fight  went  on.  Not  the 
lunge,  at  least,  I  determined,  though  the  punish- 
ment of  a  trivial  wound  was  scarce  commensurate 
with  his  sin.  So  I  let  him  slash  and  sweat  till  I 
wearied  of  the  game,  caught  his  weapon  in  the 
curved  guard  of  my  hilt,  and  broke  it  in  two. 

He  dropped  the  fragment  in  his  hand  with  a 
cry  of  mingled  anger  and  despair,  snatched  a 
knife  from  his   stocking,   and    rushed   on   me  to 


JOHN   SPLENDID  451 

stab.  Even  then  I  had  him  at  my  mercy.  As 
he  inclosed,  I  made  a  complete  volte  with  the  left 
foot,  passed  back  my  right  in  rear  of  his,  changed 
my  sword  into  my  left  hand,  holding  it  by  the 
middle  of  the  blade  and  presenting  the  point  at 
his  throat,  while  my  right  hand,  across  his  body, 
seized  his  wrist. 

For  a  moment  I  felt  angry  as  he  thought  him- 
self gone.  He  let  his  head  fall  helplessly  on 
my  breast,  and  stood  still  as  one  waiting  the 
stroke,  with  his  eyes,  as  M'lver  told  me  again, 
closed  and  his  mouth  parted.  But  a  spasm  of 
disgust  at  the  uncleanness  of  the  task  to  be  done 
made  me  retch  and  pause. 

"  Home,  dog ! "  I  gasped,  and  I  threw  him  from 
me  sprawling  on  the  sod.  He  fell,  in  his  weari- 
ness, in  an  awkward  and  helpless  mass;  the  knife 
still  in  his  hand,  pierced  him  on  the  shoulder, 
and  thus  the  injury  I  could  not  give  him  by  my 
will  was  given  him  by  Providence.  Over  on  his 
back  he  turned  with  a  plash  of  blood  oozing  at 
his  shirt,  and  he  grasped  with  clawing  fingers  to 
staunch  it,  yet  never  relinquishing  his  look  of 
bitter  anger  at  me.  With  cries,  with  tears,  with 
names  of  affection,  the  gillie  ran  to  his  master, 
whom  I  saw  was  not  very  seriously  injured. 

M'lver  helped  me  on  with  my  coat. 

"You're  far  too  soft,  man!"  he  said.  "You 
would  have  let  him  go  scathless,  and  even  now  he 
has  less  than  his  deserts.  You  have  a  pretty 
style  of  fence,  do  you  know,  and  I  should  like  to 
see  it  paraded  against  a  man  more  your  equal." 


452  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"You'll  never  see  it  paraded  by  me,"  I  an- 
swered, sorrowfully.  "Here's  my  last  duello,  if 
I  live  a  thousand  years."  And  I  went  up  and 
looked  at  my  fallen  adversary.  He  was  shivering 
with  cold,  though  the  sweat  hung  upon  the  young 
down  of  his  white  cheeks,  for  the  night  air  was 
more  bitter  every  passing  moment.  The  sun  was 
all  down  behind  the  hills,  the  valley  was  going 
to  rest,  the  wood  was  already  in  obscurity.  If  our 
butcher-work  had  seemed  horrible  in  that  sanctu- 
ary in  the  open  light  of  day,  now  in  the  eve  it 
seemed  more  than  before  a  crime  against  Heaven. 
The  lad  weltering,  with  no  word  or  moan  from  his 
lips;  the  servant  staunching  his  wound,  shaken 
the  while  by  brotherly  tears;  M'lver,  the  old 
man-at-arms,  indifferent,  practised  to  such  sights, 
and  with  the  heart  no  longer  moved  by  man-in- 
flicted injury;  and  over  all  a  brooding  silence; 
over  all  that  place,  consecrated  once  to  God  and 
prayer  by  men  of  peace,  but  now  degraded  to  a 
den  of  beasts  —  over  it  shone  of  a  sudden  the  new 
wan  crescent  moon !  I  turned  me  round,  I  turned 
and  fell  to  weeping  in  my  hands! 

This  abject  surrender  of  mine  patently  more 
astounded  the  company  than  had  the  accident  to 
MacLachlan.  M'lver  stood  dumbfoundcred,  to 
behold  a  cavalier  of  fortune's  tears,  and  MacLach- 
lan's  face,  for  all  its  pain,  gave  up  its  hate  and 
anger  for  surprise  as  he  looked  at  me  over  the 
shoulder  of  his  kneeling  clansman  plying  rude 
leech -craft  on  his  wound. 

"Are  you  vexed .-'"  said  he,  with  short  breaths. 


JOHN   SPLENDID  453 

"  And  that  bitterly  !  "  I  answered. 

"Oh,  there  is  nothing  to  grieve  on,"  said  he, 
mistaking  me  most  lamentably.  "I'll  give  you 
your  chance  again.  I  owe  you  no  less;  but  my 
knife,  if  you  '11  believe  me,  sprang  out  of  itself, 
and  I  struck  at  you  in  a  ruddy  mist  of  the  senses." 

"I  seek  no  other  chance,"  I  said;  "our  feuds 
are  over;  you  were  egged  on  by  a  subterfuge, 
deceit  has  met  deceit,  and  the  balance  is  equal." 

His  mood  softened,  and  we  helped  him  to  his 
feet,  M'lver  a  silent  man  because  he  failed  to 
comprehend  this  turn  of  affairs.  We  took  him 
to  a  cotliouse  down  at  the  foot  of  the  wood, 
where  he  lay  while  a  boy  was  sent  for  a  skilly 
woman. 

In  life,  as  often  as  in  the  stories  of  man's  in- 
vention, it  is  the  one  wanted  who  comes  when  the 
occasion  needs,  for  God  so  arranges,  and  if  it  may 
seem  odd  that  the  skilly  woman  the  messenger 
brought  back  with  him  for  the  dressing  of  Mac- 
Lachlan's  wound  was  no  other  than  our  Dark 
Dame  of  Lorn,  the  dubiety  must  be  at  the  Al- 
mighty's capacity,  and  not  at  my  chronicle  of  the 
circumstance.  As  it  happened,  she  had  come 
back  from  Dalness  some  days  later  than  our- 
selves, none  the  worse  for  her  experience  among 
the  folks  of  that  unchristian  neighbourhood,  who 
had  failed  to  comprehend  that  the  crazy  tumult  of 
her  mind  might,  like  the  sea,  have  calm  in  its 
depths,  and  that  she  was  more  than  by  accident 
the  one  who  had  alarmed  us  of  their  approach. 
She  had  come  back  with  her  frenzy  reduced,  and 


454  JOHN   SPLENDID 

was  now  with  a  sister  at  Bal-an-tyre  the  Lower, 
whose  fields  slope  on  Aora's  finest  bend. 

For  skill  she  had  a  name  in  three  parishes;  she 
had  charms  sure  and  certain  for  fevers  and  hoasts ; 
the  lives  of  children  were  in  her  hands  while  yet 
their  mothers  bore  them ;  she  knew  manifold 
brews,  decoctions,  and  clysters ;  at  morning  on 
the  saints'  days  she  would  be  in  the  woods,  or 
among  the  rocks  by  the  rising  of  the  sun,  gather- 
ing mosses  and  herbs  and  roots  that  contain  the 
very  juices  of  health  and  the  secret  of  age.  I 
little  thought  that  day  when  we  waited  for  her, 
and  my  enemy  lay  bleeding  on  the  fern,  that  she 
would  bring  me  the  cure  for  the  sore  heart,  the 
worst  of  all  diseases. 

While  M'lver  and  I  and  the  gillie  waited  the 
woman's  coming,  MacLachlan  tossed  in  a  fever, 
his  mind  absent  and  his  tongue  running  on  with- 
out stoppage,  upon  affairs  of  a  hundred  different 
hues,  but  all  leading  sooner  or  later  to  some 
babble  about  a  child.  It  was  ever  "the  dear 
child,"  the  "  jh'  aidail  g/u-al,''  "the  white  treas- 
ure," "the  orphan;"  it  was  always  an  accent  of 
the  most  fond  and  lingering  character.  I  paid 
no  great  heed  to  this  constant  wail;  but  M'lver 
pondered  and  studied,  repeating  at  last  the  words 
to  himself  as  MacLachlan  uttered  them. 

"If  that's  not  the  young  one  in  Carlunnan  he 
harps  on,"  he  concluded  at  last,  "I  'm  mistaken. 
He  seems  even  more  wrapt  in  the  child  than  does 
the  one  we  know  who  mothers  it  now,  and  3'ou  '11 
notice,  by  the  way,  he  has  nothing  to  say  of  her." 


JOHN   SPLENDID  455 

"Neither  he  has,"  I  confessed,  well  enough 
pleased  with  the  fact  he  had  no  need  to  call  my 
attention  to. 

"  Do  you  know,  I  'm  on  the  verge  of  a  most 
particular,  deep  secret  ? "  said  John,  leaving  me 
to  guess  what  he  was  at,  but  I  paid  no  close  heed 
to  him. 

The  skilly  dame  came  in  with  her  clouts  and 
washes.  She  dressed  the  lad's  wound  and  drugged 
him  to  a  more  cooling  slumber,  and  he  was  to  be 
left  in  bed  till  the  next  day. 

"What's  all  this  cry  about  the  child.''"  asked 
M'lver  indifferently,  as  we  stood  at  the  door  be- 
fore leaving.  "  Is  it  only  a  fancy  on  his  brain,  or 
do  you  know  the  one  he  speaks  of.'' " 

She  put  on  a  little  air  of  vanity,  the  vanity  of  a 
woman  who  knows  a  secret  the  rest  of  the  world, 
and  man  particularly,  is  itching  to  hear.  "Oh, 
I  daresay  he  has  some  one  in  his  mind,"  she  ad- 
mitted; "and  I  daresay  I  know  who  it  might  be 
too,  for  I  was  the  first  to  sweel  the  baby  and  the 
last  to  dress  its  mother  —  blessing  with  her!  " 

M'lver  turned  round  and  looked  at  her,  with  cun- 
ning humour,  in  the  face.  "  I  might  well  guess 
that,"  he  said;  "you  have  the  best  name  in  the 
countryside  for  these  ofifices,  that  many  a  fumb- 
ling dame  botches.  I  suppose,"  he  added,  when 
a  pleasure  in  her  face  showed  his  words  had  found 
her  vanity  —  "I  suppose  you  mean  the  bairn  up 
in  Carlunnan .'' " 

"That's  the  very  one,"  she  said  with  a  start; 
"  but  who  told  you  ?  " 


456  JOHN    SPLENDID 

"Tuts!"  said  he  slyly,  "the  thing's  well 
enough  known  about  the  Castle,  and  MacLachlan 
himself  never  denied  he  was  the  father.  Do  you 
think  a  secret  like  that  could  be  kept  in  a  clatter- 
ing parish  like  Inneraora  ?  " 

"You  're  the  first  I  ever  heard  get  to  the  mar- 
row of  it,"  confessed  the  Dame  Dubh.  "Mac- 
Lachlan himself  never  thought  I  was  in  the 
woman's  confidence,  and  I  've  seen  him  in  Carlun- 
nan  there  since  I  came  home,  pretending  more 
than  a  cousin's  regard  for  the  Provost's  daughter 
so  that  he  might  share  in  the  bairn's  fondling. 
He  did  it  so  well,  too,  that  the  lady  herself  would 
talk  of  its  fatherless  state  with  tears  in  her 
eyes." 

I  stood  by,  stunned  at  the  revelation  that 
brought  joy  from  the  very  last  quarter  where  I 
would  have  sought  it.  But  I  must  not  let  my 
rapture  at  the  idea  of  MacLachlan's  being  no 
suitor  of  the  girl  go  too  far  till  I  confirmed  this 
new  intelligence. 

"Perhaps,"  I  said  in  a  little  to  the  woman, 
"the  two  of  them  fondling  the  bairn  were  chief 
enough,  though  they  did  not  share  the  secret  of 
its  fatherhood." 

"Chief!"  she  cried;  "the  girl  has  no  more 
notion  of  MacLachlan  than  I  have,  if  an  old 
woman's  eyes  that  once  were  clear  enough  for 
such  things  still  show  me  anything.  I  would 
have  been  the  first  to  tell  her  how  things  stood  if 
I  had  seen  it  otherwise.  No,  no;  Mistress  Brown 
has  an  eye  in  other  quarters.      What  do  you  say 


JOHN   SPLENDID  457 

to  that,  Barbeck?"  she  added,  laughing  slyly  to 
my  friend. 

A  great  ease  came  upon  my  mind;  it  was  light- 
ened of  a  load  that  had  lain  on  it  since  ever  my 
Tynree  spaewife  found,  or  pretended  to  find,  in 
my  silvered  loof  such  an  unhappy  portent  of  my 
future.  And  then  this  rapture  was  followed  by  a 
gladness  no  less  profound  that  MacLachlan,  bad 
as  he  had  been,  was  not  the  villain  quite  I  had 
fancied ;  if  he  had  bragged  of  conquests,  it  had 
been  with  truth  though  not  with  decency. 

Inneraora,  as  we  returned  to  it  that  night,  was 
a  town  enchanted;  again  its  lights  shone  warm 
and  happily.  I  lingered  late  in  its  street,  white 
in  the  light  of  the  stars,  and  looked  upon  the  nine 
windows  of  Askaig's  house.  There  was  no  light 
in  all  the  place ;  the  lower  windows  of  the  tene- 
ments were  shuttered,  and  slumber  was  within. 
It  gave  me  an  agreeable  exercise  to  guess  which 
of  the  unshuttered  nine  would  let  in  the  first  of 
the  morning  light  on  a  pillow  with  dark  hair 
tossed  upon  it  and  a  rounded  cheek  upon  a  hand 
like  milk. 


458  JOHN    SPLENDID 


CHAPTER   XXXIV 

Young  Lachie  did  not  bide  long  on  our  side  of 
the  water;  a  day  or  two  and  he  was  away  back  to 
his  people,  but  not  before  he  and  I,  in  a  way, 
patched  up  once  more  a  friendship  that  had  never 
been  otherwise  than  distant,  and  was  destined  so 
to  remain  till  the  end,  when  he  married  my  aunt 
Nannie  Ruadh  of  the  Boshang  Gate,  whose  money 
we  had  been  led  to  look  for  as  a  help  to  our  fallen 
fortunes.  She  might,  for  age,  have  been  his 
mother,  and  she  was  more  than  a  mother  to  the 
child  he  brought  to  her  from  Carlunnan  without 
so  much  as  by  your  leave,  the  day  after  they  took 
up  house  together.  "That's  my  son,"  said  he, 
"young  Lachie."  She  looked  at  the  sturdy  little 
fellow  beating  with  a  knife  upon  the  bark  of  an 
ashen  sapling  he  was  fashioning  into  a  whistle, 
and  there  was  no  denying  the  resemblance.  The 
accident  was  common  enough  in  those  days. 
"Who  is  the  mother.'"  was  all  she  said,  with 
her  plump  hand  on  the  little  fellow's  head.  "  She 
was  So-and-so,"  answered  her  husband,  looking 
into  the  fire;  "we  were  very  young,  and  I've 
paid  the  penalty  by  my  rueing  it  ever  since." 

Nannie  Ruadh  took  the  child  to  her  heart  that 
never  knew  the  glamour  of  her  own,  and  he  grew 
up,  as  I  could  tell  in  a  more  interesting  tale  than 


JOHN   SPLENDID  459 

this,  to  be  a  great  and  good  soldier,  wlio  won 
battles  for  his  country.  So  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  Dame  Dubh's  story  to  us  in  the  cot  by  Aora 
had  not  travelled  very  far  when  it  had  not  in  six 
years  reached  the  good  woman  of  Boshang  Gate, 
who  knew  everybody's  affairs  between  the  two 
stones  of  the  parish.  M'lver  and  I  shared  the 
secret  with  MacLachlan  and  the  nurse  of  his  dead 
lover;  it  went  no  farther,  and  it  was  all  the  more 
wonderful  that  John  should  have  to  keep  his 
thumb  on  it,  considering  its  relevancy  to  a  blun- 
der that  made  him  seem  a  scoundrel  in  the  eyes 
of  Mistress  Betty.  Once  I  proposed  to  him  that 
through  her  father  she  might  have  the  true  state 
of  affairs  revealed  to  her. 

"  Let  her  be,"  he  answered,  "  let  her  be.  She  '11 
learn  the  truth  some  day,  no  doubt."  And  then, 
as  by  a  second  thought,  "  The  farther  off  the  bet- 
ter, perhaps,"  a  saying  full  of  mystery. 

The  Dark  Dame,  as  I  say,  gave  me  the  cure  for 
a  sore  heart.  Her  news,  so  cunningly  squeezed 
from  her  by  John  Splendid,  relieved  me  at  once 
of  the  dread  that  MacLachlan,  by  his  opportuni- 
ties of  wooing,  had  made  himself  secure  in  her 
affections,  and  that  those  rambles  by  the  river  to 
Carlunnan  had  been  by  the  tryst  of  lovers.  A 
wholesome  new  confidence  came  to  my  aid  when 
the  Provost,  aging  and  declining  day  by  day  to 
the  last  stroke  that  came  so  soon  after,  hinted 
once  that  he  knew  no  one  he  would  .sooner  leave 
the  fortunes  of  his  daughter  with  than  with  my- 
self.     I  mooted  the  subject  to  his  wife  too,    in 


46o  JOHN    SPLENDID 

one  wild  valour  of  a  sudden  meeting,  and  even 
she,  once  so  shy  of  the  topic,  seemed  to  look  upon 
my  suit  with  favour. 

"  I  could  not  have  a  goodson  more  worthy  than 
yourself,"  she  was  kind  enough  to  say.  "Once  I 
thought  Betty's  favour  was  elsewhere,  in  an  air 
that  scarcely  pleased  me,   and " 

"But  that 's  all  over,"  I  said,  warmly,  sure  she 
thought  of  MacLachlan. 

"I  hope  it  is;  I  think  it  is,"  she  said.  "Once 
I  had  sharp  eyes  on  my  daughter,  and  her  heart's 
inmost  throb  was  plain  to  me,  for  you  see,  Colin, 
I  have  been  young  myself,  long  since,  and  I 
remember.  A  brave  heart  will  win  the  bravest 
girl,  and  you  have  every  wish  of  mine  for  your 
good  fortune." 

Then  I  played  every  art  of  the  lover,  embold- 
ened the  more  since  I  knew  she  had  no  tie  of 
engagement.  Remembering  her  father's  words 
in  the  harvest-field  of  Elrigmore,  I  wooed  her,  not 
in  humility,  but  in  the  confidence  that,  in  other 
quarters,  ere  she  ever  came  on  the  scene,  had 
given  me  liberty  on  the  lips  of  any  girl  I  met  in 
a  lane  without  more  than  a  laughing  protest. 
Love,  as  I  learned  now,  was  not  an  outcome  of 
the  reason,  but  will's  mastership.  Day  by  day  I 
contrived  to  see  my  lady.  I  was  cautious  to  be 
neither  too  hot  nor  too  cold,  and  never  but  at  my 
best  in  appearance  and  in  conversation.  All  my 
shyness  I  thrust  under  my  feet;  there  is  one  way 
to  a  woman's  affections,  and  that  is  frankness  to 
the  uttermost.     I  thought  no  longer,  ere  I  spoke, 


JOHN   SPLENDID  461 

if  this  sentiment  should  make  me  ridiculous,  or 
that  sentiment  too  readily  display  my  fondness, 
but  spoke  out  as  one  in  a  mere  gallantry. 

At  first  she  was  half  alarmed  at  the  new  mood 
I  was  in,  shrinking  from  this,  my  open  revelation, 
and  yet,  I  could  see,  not  unpleased  altogether  that 
she  should  be  the  cause  of  a  change  so  much  to 
my  advantage.  I  began  to  find  a  welcome  in  her 
smile  and  voice  when  I  called  on  the  household 
of  an  afternoon  or  evening,  on  one  pretext  or 
another,  myself  ashamed  sometimes  at  the  very 
flimsiness  of  them.  She  would  be  knitting  by 
the  fire  perhaps,  and  it  pleased  me  greatly  by 
some  design  of  my  conversation  to  make  her  turn 
at  once  her  face  from  the  flames  whose  rosiness 
concealed  her  flushing,  and  reveal  her  confusion 
to  the  yellow  candle-light.  Oh!  happy  days. 
Oh !  times  so  gracious,  the  spirit  and  the  joy 
they  held  are  sometimes  with  me  still.  We  re- 
vived, I  think,  the  glow  of  that  meeting  on  the 
stair  when  I  came  home  from  Germanic,  and  the 
hours  passed  in  swallow  flights  as  we  talked  of 
summer  days  gone  bye. 

At  last  we  had  even  got  the  length  of  walking 
together  in  an  afternoon  or  evening  in  the  wood 
behind  the  town  that  has  been  the  haunt  in  court- 
ing days  of  generations  of  our  young  people;  ex- 
cept for  a  little  melancholy  in  my  lady,  these 
were  perhaps  life's  happiest  periods.  The  wind 
might  be  sounding  and  the  old  leaves  flying  in 
the  wood,  the  air  might  chill  and  nip,  but  there 
was  no  bitterness  for  us  in  the  season's  chiding. 


o- 


462  JOHN    SPLENDID 

To-day,  an  old  man,  with  the  follies  of  youth 
made  plain  and  contemptible,  I  cannot  but  think 
those  eves  in  the  forest  had  something  precious 
and  magic  for  memory.  There  is  no  sorrow  in 
them  but  that  they  are  no  more,  and  that  the 
world  to  come  may  have  no  repetition.  How  the 
trees,  the  tall  companions,  communed  together  in 
their  heights  among  the  stars!  how  the  burns 
tinkled  in  the  grasses  and  the  howlets  mourned  ! 
And  we,  together,  walked  sedate  and  slowly  in 
those  evening  alleys,  surrounded  by  the  scents 
the  dews  bring  forth,  shone  upon  by  silver  moon 
and  stars. 

To-day,  in  my  eld,  it  amuses  me  still  that  for 
long  I  never  kissed  her.  I  had  been  too  slow  of 
making  a  trial,  to  venture  it  now  without  some 
effort  of  spirit ;  and  time  after  time  I  had  started 
on  our  stately  round  of  the  hunting-road  with  a 
resolution  wrought  up  all  the  way  from  my  look- 
ing-glass at  Elrigmore,  that  this  should  be  the 
night,  if  any,  when  I  should  take  the  liberty  that 
surely  our  rambles,  though  actual  word  of  love 
had  not  been  spoken,  gave  me  a  title  to.  A  title ! 
I  had  kissed  many  a  bigger  girl  before  in  a  ca- 
price at  a  hedge-gate.  But  this  little  one,  so 
demurely  walking  by  my  side,  with  never  so  much 
as  an  arm  on  mine,  her  pale  face  like  marble  in 
the  moonlight,  her  eyes,  when  turned  on  mine, 
like  dancing  points  of  fire.  Oh!  the  task  defied 
me!  The  task  I  say — it  was  a  duty,  I  '11  swear 
now,   in  the  experience  of  later  years. 

I  kissed  her  first  on  the  niirht   before   M'lver 


JOHN   SPLENDID  463 

set  out  on  his  travels  anew,  no  more  in  the  camp 
of  Argile  his  severed  chief,  but  as  a  Cavalier  of 
the  purchased  sword. 

It  was  a  night  of  exceeding  calm,  with  the 
moon,  that  I  had  seen  as  a  cork-hook  over  my 
warfare  with  MacLachlan  in  Tara-Dubh,  swollen 
to  the  full  and  gleaming  upon  the  country  till  it 
shone  as  in  the  dawn  of  day.  We  walked  back 
and  forth  on  the  hunting-road  for  long,  in  a 
silence  broken  by  few  words.  My  mind  was  in  a 
storm.  I  felt  that  I  was  losing  my  friend,  and 
that  by  itself  was  trouble;  but  I  felt,  likewise, 
a  shame  that  the  passion  of  love  at  my  bosom 
robbed  the  deprivation  of  much  of  its  sorrow. 

"I  shall  kiss  her  to-night  if  she  spurns  mc  for 
ever,"  I  said  to  myself  over  and  over  again,  and 
anon  I  would  marvel  at  my  own  daring;  but  the 
act  was  still  to  do.  It  was  more  than  to  do  —  it 
was  to  be  led  up  to,  and  yet  my  lady  kept  every 
entrance  to  the  project  barred,  with  a  cunning 
that  yet  astounds  me. 

We  had  talked  of  many  things  in  our  evening 
rambles  in  that  wood,  but  never  of  M'lver,  whose 
name  the  girl  shunned  mention  of  for  a  cause  I 
knew  but  could  never  set  her  right  on.  This 
night,  his  last  in  our  midst,  I  ventured  on  his 
name.  She  said  nothing  for  a  little,  and  for  a 
moment  I  thought,  "Here's  a  dour,  little  unfor- 
giving heart !  "  Then,  softly,  said  she,  "  I  wish 
him  well  and  a  safe  return  from  his  travelling. 
I  wish  him  better  than  his  deserts.  That  he  goes 
at  all  surprises  me.     I  thought  it  but  John  Splen- 


464  JOHN   SPLENDID 

tlid's  promise  —  to  be  acted  on  or  not  as  the  mood 
happened." 

"Yes,"  I  said;  "he  goes  without  a  doubt.  I 
saw  him  to-day  kiss  his  farewells  with  half-a- 
dozen  girls  on  the  road  between  the  Maltland  and 
the  town." 

"I  daresay,"  she  answered;  "he  never  lacked 
boldness." 

My  chance  had  come. 

"No,  indeed,  he  did  not,"  said  I;  "and  I  wish 
I  had  some  of  it  myself." 

"What!  for  so  common  a  display  of  it .-' "  she 
asked  rallying,  yet  with  some  sobriety  in  her  tone. 

"Not  a  bit,"  I  answered;  "that  — that  —  that  I 
might  act  the  part  of  a  lover  with  some  credit  to 
myself,  and  kiss  the  one  girl  I  know  in  that 
capacity." 

"Would  she  let  you.''"  she  asked,  removing 
herself  by  a  finger-length  from  my  side,  yet  not 
apparently  enough  to  show  she  thought  herself 
the  one  in  question. 

"That,  madame,  is  what  troubles  me,"  I  con- 
fessed in  anguish,  for  her  words  had  burst  the 
bubble  of  my  courage. 

"Of  course  you  cannot  tell  till  you  try,"  she 
said  demurely,  looking  straight  before  her,  no 
smile  on  the  corners  of  her  lips,  that  somehow 
maddened  by  their  look  of  pliancy. 

"You  know  whom  I  mean,"  I  said,  pursuing 
my  plea,  whose  rustic  simplicity  let  no  man  mock 
at,  remembering  the  gawky  errors  of  his  own 
experience. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  465 

"There 's  Bell,  the  minister's  niece,  and  there's 
Kilblaan's  daughter,  and " 

"  Oh,  my  dear  !  my  dear  !  "  I  cried,  stopping  and 
putting  my  hand  daringly  on  her  shoulder.  "  You 
know  it's  not  any  of  these;  you  must  know  I 
mean  yourself.  Here  am  I,  a  man  travelled,  no 
longer  a  youth,  though  still  with  the  flush  of  it, 
no  longer  with  a  humility  to  let  me  doubt  myself 
worthy  of  your  best  thoughts ;  I  have  let  slip  a 
score  of  chances  on  this  same  path,  and  even  now 
I  cannot  muster  up  the  spirit  to  brave  your  pos- 
sible anger." 

She  laughed  a  very  pleasant  soothing  laugh 
and  released  her  shoulder.  "  At  least  you  give 
me  plenty  of  warning,"  she  said. 

"I  am  going  to  kiss  you  now,"  I  said,  with 
great  firmness. 

She  walked  a  little  faster,  panting  as  I  could 
hear,  and  I  blamed  myself  that  I  had  alarmed 
her. 

"At  least,"  I  added,  "I  '11  do  it  when  we  get 
to  Bealloch-an-uarain  well." 

She  hummed  a  snatch  of  Gaelic  song  we  have 
upon  that  notable  well,  a  song  that  is  all  an  in- 
vitation to  drink  the  waters  while  you  are  young, 
and  drink  you  may,  and  I  suddenly  ventured  to 
embrace  her  with  an  arm.  She  drew  up  with 
stern  lijDs  and  back  from  my  embrace,  and  Elrig- 
more  was  again  in  torment. 

"You  are  to  blame  yourself,"  I  said  huskily; 
"you  let  me  think  I  might.  And  now  I  see  you 
are  angry," 

30 


466  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"  Am  I  ?  "  she  said,  smiling  again.  "  I  think 
you  said  the  well,   did  you  not?" 

"  And  may  I  ?  "  eagerly  I  asked,  devouring  her 
with  my  eyes. 

"You  may  —  at  the  well,"  she  answered,  and 
then  she  laughed  softly. 

Again  my  spirits  bounded. 

"But  I  was  not  thinking  of  going  there  to- 
night," she  added,  and  the  howlet  in  the  bush 
beside  me  hooted  at  my  ignominy. 

I  walked  in  a  perspiration  of  vexation  and 
alarm.  It  was  plain  that  here  was  no  desire  for 
my  caress,  that  the  girl  was  but  probing  the  depth 
of  my  presumption,  and  I  gave  up  all  thought  of 
pushing  my  intention  to  performance.  Our  con- 
versation turned  to  more  common  channels,  and  I 
had  hoped  my  companion  had  lost  the  crude  im- 
pression of  my  wooing  as  we  passed  the  path  that 
led  from  the  hunting-road  to  the  13ealloch-an- 
uarain. 

"Oh!"  she  cried  here,  "I  wished  for  some  ivy; 
I  thought  to  pluck  it  farther  back,  and  your  non- 
sense made  me  quite  forget." 

"  Cannot  we  return  for  it.''  "  I  said,  well  enough 
pleased  at  the  chance  of  prolonging  our  walk. 

"No;  it  is  too  late,"  she  answered  abruptly. 
"  Is  there  nowhere  else  here  where  we  can  get 
it  ?  " 

"I  do  not  think  so,"  I  said  stupidly.  Then  I 
remembered  that  it  grew  in  the  richest  profusion 
on  the  face  of  the  grotto  we  call  Realloch-an- 
uarain.      "Except  at  the  well,"  I  added. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  467 

"Of  course  it  is  so;  now  I  remember,"  said 
she;  "there  is  plenty  of  it  there.  Let  us  haste 
and  get  it."  And  she  led  the  way  up  the  path, 
I  following  with  a  heart  that  surged  and  beat. 

When  our  countryside  is  changed,  when  the 
forest  of  Creag  Dubh,  where  roam  the  deer,  is 
levelled  with  the  turf,  and  the  foot  of  the  passen- 
ger wears  round  the  castle  of  Argile,  I  hope,  I 
pray,  that  grotto  on  the  brae  will  still  lift  up  its 
face  among  the  fern  and  ivy.  Nowadays  when 
the  mood  comes  on  me,  and  I  must  be  the  old 
man  chafing  against  the  decay  of  youth's  spirit, 
and  the  recollection  overpowers  of  other  times 
and  other  faces  than  those  so  kent  and  tolerant 
about  me,  I  put  my  plaid  on  my  shoulders  and 
walk  to  Bealloch-an-uarain  well.  My  children's 
children  must  be  with  me  elsewhere  on  my  saun- 
ters ;  here  I  must  walk  alone.  I  am  young  again 
when  looking  on  that  magic  fountain,  still  the 
same  as  when  its  murmur  sounded  in  my  lover's 
ears.  Here  are  yet  the  stalwart  trees,  the  tall 
companions,  that  nodded  on  our  shy  confessions ; 
the  ivy  hangs  in  sheeny  spray  upon  the  wall. 
Time,  that  ranges,  has  here  no  freedom,  but 
stands,  shackled  by  links  of  love  and  memory  to 
the  rocks  we  sat  on.  I  sit  now  there  and  muse, 
and  beside  me  is  a  shadow  that  never  ages,  with 
a  pale  face  averted,  looking  through  leafless 
boughs  at  the  glimpse  of  star  and  moon.  I  sec 
the  bosom  heave;  I  see  the  eyes  flash  full,  then 
soften  half-shut  on  some  inward  vision.  For  I 
am  never  there  at  Bealloch-an-uarain,  summer  or 


468  JOHN    SPLENDID 

spring,  but  the  season,  in  my  thought,  is  that  of 
my  wife's  first  kiss,  and  it  is  always  a  pleasant 
evening  and  the  birds  are  calling  in  the  dusk. 

I  plucked  my  lady's  ivy  with  a  cruel  wrench, 
as  one  would  pluck  a  sweet  delusion  from  his 
heart,  and  her  fingers  were  so  warm  and  soft  as  I 
gave  her  the  leaves !     Then  I  turned  to  go. 

"It  is  time  we  were  home,"  I  said,  anxious 
now  to  be  alone  with  my  vexation. 

"In  a  moment,"  she  said,  plucking  more  ivy 
for  herself;  and  then  she  said,  "Let  us  sit  a 
little;  I  am  wearied." 

My  courage  came  anew.  "  Fool !  "  I  called 
myself.  "  You  may  never  have  the  chance  again. 
I  sat  down  by  her  side,  and  talked  no  love  but 
told  a  story. 

It  is  a  story  we  have  in  the  sheilings  among 
the  hills,  the  tale  of  "The  Sea  Fairy  of  French 
Foreland;"  but  I  changed  it  as  I  went  on  and 
made  the  lover  a  soldier.  I  made  him  wander, 
and  wandering  think  of  home  and  a  girl  beside 
the  sea.  I  made  him  confront  wild  enemies  and 
battle  with  storms,  I  set  him  tossing  upon  oceans 
and  standing  in  the  streets  of  leaguered  towns,  or 
at  grey  heartless  mornings  upon  lonely  plains  with 
solitude  around,  and  yet,  in  all,  his  heart  was 
with  the  girl  beside  the  sea. 

She  listened  and  flushed.  My  hero's  dangers 
lit  her  eyes  like  lanthorns,  my  passions  seemed 
to  find  an  echo  in  her  sighs. 

Then  I  pitied  my  hero,  the  wandering  soldier, 
so  much  alone,  so  eager,  and  unforgetting,  till  I 


JOHN   SPLENDID  469 

felt  the  tears  in  my  eyes  as  I  imaged  his  hope- 
less longing. 

She  checked  her  sighs,  she  said  my  name  in 
the  softest  whisper,  laid  her  head  upon  my  shoul- 
der and  wept.  And  then  at  last  I  met  her  quiv- 
ering lips. 


470  JOHN   SPLENDID 


CHAPTER    XXXV 

On  the  morrow,  John  Splendid  came  riding  up 
the  street  on  his  way  to  the  foreign  wars.  He 
had  attired  himself  most  sprucely;  he  rode  a  good 
horse,  and  he  gave  it  every  chance  to  show  its 
quality.  Old  women  cried  to  him  from  their 
windows  and  close-mouths.  "Oh!  laoc/iain,^'' 
they  said,  "yours  be  the  luck  of  the  seventh 
son ! "  He  answered  gaily,  with  the  harmless 
flatteries  that  came  so  readily  to  his  lips  always, 
they  seemed  the  very  bosom's  revelation.  "Oh! 
women!"  said  he,  "I'll  be  thinking  of  your 
handsome  sons,  and  the  happy  days  we  spent 
together,  and  wishing  myself  soberly  home  with 
them  when  I  am  far  away. " 

But  not  the  old  women  alone  waited  on  his 
going;  shy  girls  courtesied  or  a2:)plauded  at  the 
corners.  For  them  his  horse  caracoled  on  Stone- 
field's  causeway,  his  shoulders  straightened,  and 
his  bonnet  rose.  "There  you  are!"  said  he, 
"still  the  temptation  and  the  despair  of  a  decent 
bachelor's  life.  I  '11  marry  every  one  of  you  that 
have  not  a  man  when  I  come  home. " 

"And  when  may  that  be.''"  cried  a  little,  bold 
fair  one,  with  a  laughing  look  at  him  from  under 
the  blowing  locks  that  escaped  the  snood  on  her 
hair. 


JOHN    SPLENDID  471 

"  When  may  it  be  ? "  he  repeated.  "  Say  '  Come 
home,  Barbreck, '  in  every  one  of  your  evening 
prayers,  and  heaven,  for  the  sake  of  so  sweet  a 
face,  may  send  me  home  the  sooner  with  my 
fortune." 

Master  Gordon,  passing,  heard  the  speech. 
"Do  your  own  praying,    Barbreck " 

"John,"  said  my  hero.  "John,  this  time  to 
you." 

"John  be  it,"  said  the  cleric,  smiling  warmly. 
"I  like  you,  truly,  and  I  wish  you  well." 

M'lver  stooped  and  took  the  proffered  hand. 
"Master  Gordon,"  he  said,  "I  would  sooner  be 
liked  and  loved  than  only  admired;  that's,  per- 
haps,  the  secret  of  my  life." 

It  was  not  the  fishing  season;  but  the  street 
thronged  with  fishers  from  Kenmore  and  Cairn- 
dhu  and  Kilcatrine  and  the  bays  of  lower  Cowal. 
Their  tall  figures  jostled  in  the  causeway,  their 
white  teeth  gleamed  in  their  friendliness,  and 
they  met  this  companion  of  numerous  days  and 
nights,  this  gentleman  of  good  humour  and  even 
temper,  with  cries  as  in  a  schoolboy's  playground. 
They  clustered  round  the  horse  and  seized  upon 
the  trappings.  Then  John  Splendid's  play-act- 
ing came  to  its  conclusion,  as  it  was  ever  bound 
to  do  when  his  innermost  man  was  touched. 
He  forgot  the  carriage  of  his  shoulders;  indiffer- 
ent to  the  disposition  of  his  reins,  he  reached  and 
wrung  a  hundred  hands,  crying  back  memory  for 
memory,  jest  for  jest,  and  always  the  hope  for 
future  meetings. 


4/2  JOHN   SPLENDID 

"O  scamps!  scamps!"  said  he,  "fishing  the 
silly  prey  of  ditches  when  you  might  be  with  me 
upon  the  ocean  and  capturing  the  towns.  I  '11 
never  drink  a  glass  of  Rhenish,  but  I  '11  mind  of 
you  and  sorrow  for  your  sour  ales  and  bitter 
aqua!  " 

Will  it  be  long?"  said  they  —  true  Gaels,  ever 
anxious  to  know  the  lease  of  pleasure  or  of  grief. 

"Long  or  short,"  said  he,  with  absent  hands 
in  his  horse's  mane,  "will  lie  with  Fate,  and 
she,  my  lads,  is  a  dour  jade  with  a  secret.  It  '11 
be  long  if  ye  mind  of  me,  and  unco  short  if  ye 
forget  me  till  I  return." 

I  went  up  and  said  farewell.  I  but  shook  his 
hand,  and  my  words  were  few  and  simple.  That 
took  him,  for  he  was  always  quick  to  sound  the 
depth  of  silent  feeling. 

"Mo  thniadli  !  mo  tJmiadli  !  Colin,"  said  he. 
"My  grief!  my  grief!  here  are  two  brothers 
closer  than  by  kin,  and  they  have  reached  a  gus- 
set of  life,  and  there  must  be  separation.  I  have 
had  many  a  jolt  from  my  fairy  relatives,  but  they 
have  never  been  more  wicked  than  now.  I  wish 
you  were  with  me,  and  yet,  ah !  yet.  Would  her 
ladyship,  think  ye,  forget  for  a  minute,  and  shake 
an  old  friend's  hand,  and  say  good-bye.-'  " 

I  turned  to  Betty,  who  stood  a  little  back  with 
her  father,  and  conveyed  his  wish.  She  came 
forward,  dyed  crimson  to  the  neck,  and  stood  by 
his  horse's  side.  He  slid  off  the  saddle  and 
shook  her  hand. 

"It    is   very   good   of   you,"    said    he.      "You 


JOHN   SPLENDID  473 

have  my  heart's  good  wishes  to  the  innermost 
chamber. " 

Then  he  turned  to  me,  and  while  the  fishermen 
stood  back,  he  said,  "I  envied  you  twice,  Colin, 
once  when  you  had  the  foresight  of  your  fortune 
on  the  side  of  Loch  Lhinne,  and  now  that  it 
seems  begun." 

He  took  the  saddle,  waved  his  bonnet  in  fare- 
well to  all  the  company,  then  rode  quickly  up  the 
street  and  round  the  castle  walls. 

It  was  a  day  for  the  open  road,  and,  as  we  say, 
for  putting  the  seven  glens  and  the  seven  bens 
and  the  seven  mountain  moors  below  a  young 
man's  feet,  a  day  with  invitation  in  the  air  and 
the  promise  of  gifts  around.  The  mallards  at 
morning  had  quacked  in  the  Dhuloch  pools,  the 
otter  scoured  the  burn  of  Maam,  the  air-goat 
bleated  as  he  flew  among  the  reeds,  and  the  stag 
paused  above  his  shed  antlers  on  Torvil-side  to 
hide  them  in  the  dead  bracken. 

M'lver  rode  beside  flowering  saugh  and  alder 
tree  through  those  old  arches,  now  no  more,  those 
arches  that  were  the  outermost  posterns  where 
good-luck  allowed  farewells.  He  dare  not  once 
look  round,  and  his  closest  friends  dare  not  fol- 
low him,  as  he  rode  alone  the  old  road  so  many 
of  our  people  have  gone  to  their  country's  wars  or 
to  sporran  battles. 

A  silence  fell  upon  the  community,  and  in  upon 
it  broke  from  the  river-side  the  wail  of  a  bagpipe 
played  by  the  piper  of  Argile.  It  played  a  tune 
familiar  to  those  parts  upon  occasions  of  parting 


474  JOHN   SPLENDID 

and  encouragement,  a  tunc  they  call  "Come  back 
to  the  Glen." 

Come  back  to  the  glen,  to  the  glen,  to  the  glen. 
And  there  shall  the  welcome  be  waiting  for  you. 

The  deer  and  the  heath-cock,  the  curd  from  the  pen. 
The  blackberry  fresh  from  the  dew  ! 

We  saw  the  piper  strut  upon  the  gravelled  walk 
beside  the  bridge-gate,  we  saw  Argile  himself 
come  out  to  meet  the  traveller. 

"  MacCailcin  !  MacCailein  !  Ah  the  dearheart ! " 
cried  all  our  people,  touched  by  this  rare  and  gen- 
teel courtesy. 

The  Marquis  and  his  clansman  touched  hands, 
lingered  together  a  little,  and  the  rider  passed  on 
his  way  with  the  piper's  invitation  the  last  sound 
in  his  ears.  He  rode  past  Kilmalieu  of  the 
tombs,  with  his  bonnet  off  for  all  the  dead  that 
were  so  numerous  there,  so  patient,  waiting  for 
the  final  trump.  He  rode  past  Boshang  Gate, 
portal  to  my  native  glen  of  chanting  birds  and 
melodious  waters  and  merry  people.  He  rode 
past  Gearron  hamlet,  where  the  folk  waved  fare- 
wells; then  over  the  river  before  him  was  the 
bend  that  is  ever  the  beginning  of  home-sickness 
for  all  that  go  abroad  for  fortune. 

I  turned  to  the  girl  beside  me,  and  "  Sweet- 
heart," said  I  softly,  "there's  an  elder  brother 
lost.  It  is  man's  greed,  I  know;  but  rich  though 
I  am  in  this  new  heart  of  yours,  I  must  be  grudg- 
ing the  comrade  gone." 

"Gone!"  said  she,  with  scarcely  a  glance  after 


JOHN   SPLENDID  475 

the  departing  figure.  "  Better  gone  than  here  a 
perpetual  sinner,  deaf  to  the  cry  of  justice  and  of 
nature." 

"Good  God!"  I  cried,  "are  you  still  in  that 
delusion?"  and  I  hinted  at  the  truth. 

She  saw  the  story  at  a  flash ;  she  paled  to  the 
very  lips,  and  turned  and  strained  her  vision  after 
that  figure  slowly  passing  round  the  woody  point; 
she  relinquished  no  moment  of  her  gaze  till  the 
path  bent  and  hid  John  Splendid  from  her  eager 
view. 


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